Michael Keenan (Stirling, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Justice, Customs and Border Protection) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. I refer the Prime Minister to the 47 boats and 2,362 boat people that have been intercepted offshore since June, when she indicated that the government had lost its way. Given that the East Timor solution is floundering and extra detention centres are being opened and expanded to meet growing demand for places, how is her government showing that it has found a way to protect Australia’s borders?

Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for his question, and it really does have a very simple answer. As a government, we tell people the truth; as an opposition, you engage in spin and slogans. In the spirit of telling people the truth, when I first spoke about this matter as Prime Minister at the Lowy Institute I made it abundantly clear that achieving my vision of a regional protection framework and regional processing centre would take some time. I was very frank with Australians about the sources of unauthorised arrivals. I was very frank with Australians about the number of arrivals. I was very frank with Australians about sharing and understanding their concerns. But I also said to Australians at the time, very clearly, very frankly, that there was no slogan that would fix this problem, that there was no one-word policy that would fix this problem, that it would take patient and methodical work, and we are engaged in that patient and methodical work as a government now, with the work that has been done by the Minister for Immigration and Citizenship.

I understand that the opposition believes it has profited off the cheap politics it has played around the asylum seeker question, just as it sought to profit off this cheap politics when it was in government, causing fundamental divisions amongst its backbench because members like the former member for Kooyong stood up against it. I wait to see members on the back bench today who shared those concerns under the Howard government once again stand up against this cheap politics. Despite current signs, I am actually very confident that they will, because the complete inability of the opposition to deal comprehensively with the question of children in detention—

Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Education, Apprenticeships and Training) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, I rise on a point of order. The Prime Minister is now ranging over the opposition’s policies from past governments and years. She was asked how she is going to find a way to protect Australia’s borders since she has been Prime Minister—

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Manager of Opposition Business will resume his seat. The Prime Minister will relate her response directly to the question.

Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In conclusion, I will say that the opposition, divided on these questions, divided about the question of children in detention, will continue to try to profit off its cheap politics. What we will do is we will continue to patiently work through it, we will continue to deploy more assets to patrol our borders than have ever been deployed before and we will continue to tell Australians the truth about the issue of unauthorised arrivals and about how we are dealing with it.