Melissa Price (Durack, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Immigration and Border Protection. Can the minister confirm that the promise of permanent residence lured over 33,000 people on dangerous boat journeys to Australia? How is the government working to ensure people smugglers will not get what they were promised?

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

I thank the member for Durack for her question. I remember being with the now member for Durack in Geraldton. Those opposite will remember Geraldton. That is where the illegal boat turned up, right in Geraldton harbour. They will remember that place very well, as I know everyone in Geraldton will remember that day. They took me to where they saw the boat and then they saw the rubber dinghy, which was the Border Protection Command under the previous government, go out.

I have been asked about those 33,000 people. That is the correct number: there are 33,000 people in Australia today in immigration detention, on bridging visas and in community detention. They are 33,000 of the more than 50,000 who turned up under the previous government. Fifteen thousand of them were given permanent visas by the previous government, delivering on the promise of the people smugglers. And the 33,000 others were waiting for that promise to be fulfilled if the previous government were re-elected. They were hoping that the former minister for immigration would be the now minister for immigration, because he promised to give them permanent visas if Labor were re-elected.

But this government took a different view. This government took the view that it does not matter if you turned up three days ago, three weeks ago, three months ago or three years ago; it is never right to illegally enter Australia and force those claims on this country and demand permanent residence. You either believe that or you do not. The people smugglers always knew that, whatever they did, the other side did not believe it. Those opposite always had to be dragged kicking and screaming.

To answer the member for Durack's question: to stop the boats and remove that incentive you have to have the right policies and you have to have them in the right hands. Before the last election the previous government had to be dragged kicking and screaming to put offshore processing back in place. They previously said it was not necessary. They previously said it had no role in stopping the boats under the Howard government. But they were forced, as the political winds blew hard against them—not out of conviction but out of political fear—to reintroduce offshore processing.

At the last election, the people of Australia made a judgment. They said that they did not trust the Labor Party with border protection policies, even if some of those border protection policies were starting to head in the right direction. They wanted to trust people who believed in those policies and would follow through on those policies. What we saw last night was a very clear indication that the Australian people got it right. They knew that the Labor Party, if they got back into office, would revert to form, revert to the Greens, and seek to undermine the border protection laws of this country. That is what they voted for last night. They ignored the mandate of the Australian people. They gave the two-fingered salute to the Australian people and said, 'We'd rather be with the Greens than with the Australian people.'