Peter Dutton (Dickson, Liberal Party, Minister for Immigration and Border Protection) Share this | Hansard source

I will address a couple of the issues that the member for Bendigo has raised. In relation to 457 visas, it was a great script from which she read—it would have been great had she attributed it to the union boss that sent it to her; nonetheless, I am happy to do my best to respond to it. The 457 visas are quite an interesting study, because the point missed out in the script from the union, honourably read by the member for Bendigo, is that we have seen a dramatic reduction in the number of 457s under this government compared to Labor's period in government. It is a point that the Labor Party continues to brush over. The same arrangements that applied under the Labor Party apply under this government. If there is a problem with the system I would be happy to hear from the honourable member, but the reality is that the number of 457 visas has dropped dramatically. If the honourable member has questions of particular organisations in relation to their own private affairs, then I suggest she go back to the union and asks them to make those inquiries specifically with those organisations themselves. Similarly, in relation to 417 visas, working holiday visas, we are happy to act on information that honourable members can provide. There is a considerable amount of work being undertaken, including in relation to Taskforce Cadena. It is telling that the member for Bendigo, having delivered her script, done her work, done her bidding on behalf of the union bosses, now leaves the chamber.

The issue of vessels in North Queensland has been raised. The ABF is currently acquiring two fast response boats from SAFE Boats International through a foreign military sale arrangement with the United States Coast Guard—and that speaks to the reliability of this particular provider and the background to this provider. They are a world-class provider of these sorts of vessels. The vessels will give the ABF access to highly specialised vessels of a proven design suitable for border protection, and they will build on the assets both on the water and aerial that we have at the moment in the Torres Strait, which is an incredibly important zone for us in relation not just to boats but to illegal fishers as well. I acknowledge the incredible work done by the member for Leichhardt and his continuing advocacy. It is very pleasing to see that he continues to push in these important areas.

I come back to the contribution of my good friend Mr Irons. He has an impressive interest in these areas, and it is the case, as we have documented before, that Labor opened 17 detention centres and this government is closing 17 detention centres. When we came into government Labor had had 2,000 children in detention, and we have got those children out of detention. We have been able to reduce the numbers of IMAs in detention dramatically. We have been able to continue that success because we have not had new arrivals. It is very clear that, had Labor been successful at the last election, by now the boats would already have recommenced. There is no doubt about that, because they see Labor as weak and divided. They saw it during the election, and that is the reason the Leader of the Opposition sought not to speak about this at all. The reality is that we have not had new arrivals—it has been well over 800 days since we have had a successful people-smuggling venture—and that means we can keep people out of detention.

We are as a government, as I have said on numerous occasions, working with a number of third countries because we do want, as a priority, to get women and children and family units off Nauru. We want to do that because people have been there too long, and it is the case that we have built up success in stopping people smugglers, in breaking their business model, in convincing would-be passengers that it is not worth paying their money, and because of that success we can enter into discussions about implementing this in a way that will not result in new arrivals. There is a lot of work that goes on behind the scenes but, to go to the member's question directly, we have been able to close a number of centres. I will make some other points shortly when I have a little more time.

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