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

I thank the honourable member very much for his question and thank him for his interest. Like all of those on this side of the parliament—those who are interested in cleaning up Labor's mess in relation to border protection—the fact is that under Labor 50,000 people came on 800 boats and, tragically, 1,200 people drowned at sea.

Ms Plibersek interjecting—

The Labor Party can interject all they like. They can show all this indignation, as the member for Sydney's currently showing. The fact is that those people—men, women and children—tragically drowned at sea. Labor can't walk away from that. They were working in concert with the Greens at the time. That is the consequence of having undone the work of the Howard government.

I didn't put people on Manus and Nauru, but it is my job to get them off—and we are getting them off—Manus and Nauru. The most important aspect of this is that we are not replacing the vacancies with new arrivals, which is exactly what would happen if the Labor Party were in government today. This Leader of the Opposition is the weakest Labor leader since Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard messed up John Howard's policy on stopping the boats. When John Howard left office in 2007, there were four people in detention—including no children. The fact is that the numbers ramped up and if the Labor Party is elected at the next election the boats will recommence. Tragically, the deaths at sea will recommence. Labor, as I say, can scoff all they like, but that is the reality of the situation. History demonstrates it and we have no doubt that that's what would be provided for under a Labor government.

I'm very proud of the fact that, under this Prime Minister, we were able to negotiate an arrangement with the United States, bearing in mind that many people on Manus—and on Nauru, for that matter—unless they voluntarily consent to go to a third country, cannot be removed to that country. We've been very clear that if they come to our country—and the intelligence demonstrates this—that is a very prime opportunity for people smugglers to again market Australia as being open for people to arrive on boats. The Prime Minister brokered a deal with President Obama. It has been honoured, to his credit, by President Trump, and I'm pleased to announce that we have now seen the departure of 135 refugees to date, including in the last 72 hours some people who have been lifted from Manus and from Nauru.

This cost us billions and billions of dollars but, frankly, it pales into insignificance compared to the lives that were lost at sea. We have now had almost four years since a successful people smuggling venture. We've gotten 8,000 children out of detention. We've closed 17 detention centres. But the fact that this Leader of the Opposition—for crass political purposes in the seat of Batman, where there's an upcoming by-election—has completely sold out the success of Operation Sovereign Borders says more about him than anything else.

See this speech in context