Darren Chester (Gippsland, National Party, Minister for Veterans' Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

Those opposite may complain, but this is a matter of fact. This was the unseen cost of the border protection policy failure under Labor. Remember, as we've heard again today, that over 50,000 people arrived in over 800 boats and, tragically, there were 1,200 deaths at sea that we know of. As a local member and also as a minister I have the rare privilege of spending time with our personnel, both in training and while on deployments. But, sadly, I also have to sit with serving members and veterans who have been traumatised by their experiences, including personnel who were exposed to the traumas of boarding unseaworthy vessels, recovering drowned men, women and children. We know that Navy personnel had to recover bodies, many of which had been in the water for days and were decomposing. Navy personnel talked to me of the sensory overload—the smell of diesel fuel, vomit and rotting wood; children screaming; and adults crying. I know this is confronting and sickening, but it's true. This is not about politics. There is nothing humane about policies that lead to people drowning at sea.

Dr Mike Kelly interjecting—

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