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

I thank the honourable member for his question. One of the strongest achievements of this government has been to stop the boats, and to stop drownings at sea and to get kids out of detention. We have closed 17 detention centres and we have not had a successful people-smuggling venture now for 1,226 days. We know: if we want to undo that success, we change the policies—because that's what Kevin Rudd did when he came into government, after John Howard had successfully stopped the boats. The Labor Party then changed the policy settings that saw 50,000 people come on 800 boats and, tragically, 1,200 people drown at sea.

We've seen a lot of banter from the left of the Labor Party. Many members opposite that I'm looking at at the moment are in favour, once again, of undoing those policy settings. This government is not going to fall for that trick. I'm afraid to say that it is clear now that the Labor Party is slowly dismantling the policy that they took to the last election, which, at the time, they claimed replicated our policy in stopping the boats. There are many, many members opposite who would see people come from the regional processing centres to Australia tomorrow, which would result in a recommencement of the boats, because the people-smugglers would be up there saying, 'You can go to Manus Island for a couple of years and eventually you'll move to Australia, which is the outcome that you paid for.'

Interestingly enough, the most significant contributor to this debate from the other side is a member who wants to join their ranks formally in this place shortly—that is, a Ms Kristina Keneally. Kristina Keneally has had a lot to say on the issue of border protection. In fact, in 2011, a year in which 4½ thousand people arrived on boats and people were dying at sea, Kristina Keneally told Q&A that she supported onshore processing and that Australia was big enough to bring everyone here. There are 65 million people in the world who are displaced who want to come here; not all of them can fit in Bennelong. And the fact is that Kristina Keneally along with other Labor members are very dangerous in their attempts to undo our policies that've stopped the boats. Ms Keneally wrote in The Guardianin 2015:

Let's stop kidding ourselves. People are not safer because our government stopped the boats.

Well, I'll tell you what, Mr Speaker: there were 1,200 who people lost their lives when Labor was in government, and not one on my watch. And I'm desperately keen to make sure that we keep that record secure. Kristina Keneally represents the worst of the Labor Party when she wants to undo the policies of this government.

I can tell you, Mr Speaker: in the Bennelong by-election, John Alexander, who is an Australian sporting legend, is the only candidate who will stand up to people smugglers. (Time expired)

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