Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Immigration and Citizenship) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. I refer the Prime Minister to specific warnings received by the government in February 2008 that closing the Nauru processing centre would add to people smuggling. Given that since February 2008 there have been more than 9,000 illegal arrivals on 190 boats, how can the Prime Minister now be trusted to get other policies right, such as the $43 billion National Broadband Network, when she could not protect our borders?

Government Members:

Government members interjecting—

Chris Bowen (McMahon, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Immigration and Citizenship) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

A nice segue!

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

I think it is because they both start with ‘b’. I think that was the connection that was on the shadow minister’s mind. I say to the shadow minister who has asked the question that, of course, the government does not comment on intelligence matters. But I would say to the opposition the following: they are making big assumptions on one sentence in one document. That is a very big call indeed. I would advise the shadow minister that the document released under FOI and referred to in today’s media was not a detailed analysis on people smuggling, or its causes or Nauru; it was about detention operations on Christmas Island. So now let’s look at the question of Nauru, and I can say to the shadow minister the advice to government in December 2007 was that people smugglers remained very active throughout the region, more displaced Iraqis and Sri Lankan nationals were seeking the services of people smugglers to come to Australia, illegal movements of asylum seekers were being caused by conflicts in Sri Lanka and in the Middle East, and that there is always chatter amongst people smugglers about a range of factors and of course they do deliberately misrepresent the policies of Australian governments—and that is not just our government—in order to induce customers for their evil trade.

What I would also say to the shadow minister about Nauru—and I had the opportunity to travel to Nauru when it was in operation as a detention centre—is that what it should have had at the entry to the detention centre was a very big sign saying ‘Camp Detour’. That is what should have been up at the front of the detention centre because the truth is that 96 per cent of the people processed on Nauru and resettled came to Australia or New Zealand—overwhelmingly to Australia. So despite lots of talking tough by the Howard government about the people on the Tampa and the people afterwards, the reality is that offshore processing being done as a one-off by the Howard government meant people were processed and then overwhelmingly came to Australia. We are working on a regional protection framework and regional processing centre which will involve more nations than Australia looking to deal with people who are found to be genuine refugees so that offshore processing is not the simple detour that the shadow minister desires.

I would also say that the shadow minister should be very honest with the Australian people. He has moved his slogan from ‘stop the boats’ to ‘lay out the welcome mat for more than 3,000’ with his new statements about the number of asylum seekers the opposition looks forward to welcoming should its policies ever be policies of a government, that is, should the opposition ever be elected. The shadow minister should be honest about that. He should also be honest about the nature of the document in his hand.

Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Immigration and Citizenship) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In response to the Prime Minister’s invitation, I seek leave to table the document that was requested by the minister’s chief of staff.

Leave not granted.