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

I thank the member very much for his question. To deal with the facts in relation to this matter, the honourable member, who was part of a coalition government with then Prime Minister Julia Gillard, will remember that when the Labor Party and Greens were in alliance they presided over a dismantling of John Howard's policies. At the time, when they came to government after Prime Minister Howard in 2007, they realised—and they will remember now—that there were only four people in detention, including no children. Under the watch of the Labor Party and the Greens in government in this country not only did 50,000 people arrive on 800 boats but, most tragically, at least 1,200 people drowned at sea. If you think that I am going to take a morals lecture from you, you have another thing coming.

The point I would make is that we are bringing refugees into this country in record number. We are doing it through the refugee and humanitarian program, which means that on a per capita basis we will bring more people into our country than any other nation in the world will bring into theirs, except for Canada. So we have an enormous amount to be proud of. We bring those people in, having verified their identity, having run the proper security checks and having made sure that those people who are coming to our country are going to take full advantage of the proposition put to them—that is, that being an Australian citizen provides a great opportunity and a great start in life for them, their children and generations to follow. Of that, all Australians should be very proud.

But we have been very clear, and I state it again today, that we are not going to allow people to settle in our country who have sought to come here by boat. We have been very clear about that. It has meant that for over a thousand days now we have not had a successful people-smuggling venture. It has meant—

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