Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Given that the budget for border protection has blown out by more than $5 billion since the last election, how can the Prime Minister justify reducing the forward estimates for border protection when illegal boat arrivals are at record levels and going up?

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

The Leader of the Opposition may not be aware, but forward estimates are worked on by the public sector professionals at Treasury and the department of finance. I am not surprised the Leader of the Opposition is not aware of these questions, because the former Treasurer, Peter Costello, never let him anywhere near the budget process because he was well aware that the Leader of the Opposition was simply not up to the task—

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

Ms Anna Burke (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Prime Minister will return to the question.

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

But the Leader of the Opposition ought to inform himself of the way the government's budget works and the way in which projections are done. If the Leader of the Opposition is genuinely concerned about this question, then he may want to stop the reckless negativity that has prevented him from joining with the government to fully implement the work of the Angus Houston report—that is, the former Chief of the Defence Force, aided by other experts including Paris Aristotle and Michael L'Estrange, respected experts. But of course the Leader of the Opposition did not want to accept an expert report that did not equate with his prejudices. The government will continue to deal with the facts, and we will continue to deal with the fact that in this parliament the Leader of the Opposition's reckless negativity means more boats.