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

I have got a lot of friends over there, Mr Speaker! They're always excited when I come up. It's nice to be back. I want to say thank you very much to the member for Moncrieff for her question on a very important topic. Like all members on this side of the parliament, we are absolutely consistent and strong when it comes to border protection management as well as in relation to national security.

A lot has been said about this Leader of the Opposition—whether he is better or worse than the previous Leader of the Opposition, the member for Maribyrnong. Is he consistent? He's not consistent on different matters. What we know is that when it comes to border protection there has never been a weaker Leader of the Opposition. We know that on the Alan Jones program the Leader of the Opposition said: 'We wouldn't be changing any of the government's policies. I strongly support the measures the government has in place.' But when he left the 2GB studio, he went, on that occasion, to speak to Barrie Cassidy on Insiders. It was at the time of the ALP national conference. This is what the Leader of the Opposition had to say—and it is a very interesting quote: 'I don't believe the boats will come.' Boats? What boats? He was sitting around the cabinet table when 50,000 people came on 800 boats. I mean, what boats could we be talking about? Having just told Alan Jones that he's completely committed to our policies, he goes on to say, 'If people were in a boat, including families and children, I myself—'

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