Peter Dutton (Dickson, Liberal Party, Minister for Home Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, Mr Speaker. It's very important advice, and I'm very happy to return to this topic tomorrow, the day after and many days after that. At the election the Australian public voted for this government because we keep our borders secure and we keep our promises with the Australian public. We aren't all over the place on border protection and national security. We have delivered strong border security, and we will not allow a return to days—we will never adopt a policy that allows people to drown at sea. We will never adopt a policy that sees children back in detention, and this government will not adopt a policy where we allow the people smugglers to get back in control. At the last election, when the Australian public looked at this government, they saw something which they believed was an essential ingredient in leadership demonstrated by the Prime Minister—that is, that we will bring people into this country the right way, but we will not allow people to hop on boats and come to our country. We've been very clear about it. We can be compassionate, because we will bring this year 18,750 people into our country under the humanitarian and refugee program, but we will not allow them to come by boat. We won't allow them to come by boat, and we will not allow a situation, again, where this country loses control of its borders.

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