Julian Hill (Bruce, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I think he just proved two points with that little interjection: one, they don't want to talk about economic security and safety, and, two, he proved that the best thing the Leader of the Opposition has going for him is he has no challenger. Apparently this bloke is auditioning every day to knock him off. If you're the best that's coming behind him, he's going to reign there for a very long time, sitting in that chair. Even for them, the sickening irony in them bringing this debate is staggering—'keeping Australians safe'.

Here are some inconvenient facts. The Leader of the Opposition was once the defence minister—oh, the glory days. He was one of six defence ministers they had in nine years, remember, with the chaos, the cuts and the cover-up. They cut promised defence investment. That's not keeping us safe. They failed to deliver projects on time, with 28 projects running a total of 97 years late. That's not keeping us safe. They were all announcement and no delivery. They loved the announcement—they ran out of Australian flags, I'm sure, in the Department of Defence; they were behind him for every announcement, crowding him out—but $42 billion of their announcements had no funding. You don't run onto the battlefield waving a press release or a photo of the minister in front of the flag.

There are zero submarines from Japan, zero submarines from France and zero AUKUS submarines ordered. There is a battlefield airlifter which can't fly to the battlefield. That's not keeping us safe. The hypocrisy of bringing a debate on migration and home affairs when the Leader of the Opposition was the home affairs minister—his was an utter mess of a department, and having criminal syndicates, trafficking and rorts in integrity is not keeping us safe. A hundred thousand fake asylum seekers arrived by plane over their decade. Those opposite did nothing about it. That's not keeping us safe. No enforcement and fake cuts to migration. That's not keeping us safe.

The home affairs minister and the immigration minister are cleaning up these people's mess. (Time expired)

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