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

that is, the 50,000 people that arrived on 800 boats and the 1,200 people that drowned at sea. We were charged with cleaning that mess up. We said to the Australian people that we would resolve this issue of Labor's making. We said that we would get children out of detention and we have. We said that we would close detention centres; we have closed 17 detention centres that Labor opened. We said that we would get people off Manus and Nauru; we are in the process of doing that, and that is why we announced, only in the last week or so, the arrangement with the United States.

But what is very important is that people smugglers in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Vietnam and elsewhere at the moment hear a very strong and consistent message from not only the Prime Minister but the alternative Prime Minister of this country. Australians are watching now and looking at this government cleaning up a mess of Labor's making. Labor put those people onto Manus and Nauru, Labor put those kids into detention and Labor created a policy which saw those people drown at sea. We have cleaned Labor's mess up. But, in trying to get people off Manus and Nauru, we are concerned—and I have been very open about this—about people-smuggling syndicates putting together propaganda and messages to try and get people onto boats.

The Australian people are watching in bewilderment at the Leader of the Opposition's actions right now. He is weak and incapable of showing leadership. The legislation we have passed before this House and which is now in the Senate faces defeat because the Labor Party cannot deal with the Left of their own party. This weak Leader of the Opposition will stand up at the next election and somehow try and convince Australians that he has the same resolve as this Prime Minister and this government to stare down the continuing threat from people smugglers. All I say to the Australian people is: do not look at what this Leader of the Opposition says but look at what he does. He says he is on a unity ticket with us when it comes to stopping boats and he does the complete opposite, and he fails every test. He is the great chameleon of Australian politics. He shows, yet again, that he is unfit to be Prime Minister of this country.

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