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

Well, that's the possibility. It's a tragic possibility, but let's be honest about it: this bloke believes that he's got one foot in the door at the Lodge, and the people smugglers are rubbing their hands together because they know that under a Labor government the boats would restart.

I say it's not only us. Troy Bramston, who has particular insights into the Labor Party, wrote in The Australian last week:

Labor's left faction is pushing to increase taxes … boost union power … and—

listen to this—

abandon support for offshore processing of refugees and boat turn-backs in the lead-up to the party's national conference in July.

He goes on to say:

In July 2015, Labor's national conference only narrowly backed Bill Shorten's position that the party support turning back boats of asylum-seekers to deny them making landfall on the Australian mainland when it was safe to do so.

The highly charged and emotional debate split the left faction and saw frontbencher Anthony Albanese, a leadership challenger to Mr Shorten, break ranks with his leader and vote to oppose turn-backs.

The Labor Party is as divided as it's ever been when it comes to border protection policy. (Time expired)

See this speech in context