Fiona Scott (Lindsay, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Immigration and Border Protection. Will the minister update the House on how many days have passed since the last successful people-smuggling venture arrived in Australia? What strategies have been effective in stopping the boats?

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

The previous member for Lindsay had a habit of visiting Darwin and going out to look for boats off our northern coast. If I were to invite the new member for Lindsay to join me to go to Darwin she would not find many boats up there because, I can inform the House, it has been 88 days since the last successful people-smuggling venture to Australia. As the Prime Minister was saying before, this is a government that is known for what it achieves. Eighty-eight days without a successful people-smuggling venture is the product of this government's policies, and the resolve of this government is what is achieving those results day in, day out.

As I move around the country, I find great support for the government's achievements in this area. It would seem there are still those opposite who doubt the effectiveness or wisdom of the policies that the government is putting in place on our borders. The chief of those who are in doubt about these policies is none other than the Leader of the Opposition himself. On four occasions last week he was asked by David Speers whether he supported this government's policy to turn back the boats—a policy they opposed at the last election, a policy they said could never be done, was impossible to do and would never work. He could not give a response. When he was asked it had been 80 days; now it is 88 days, and I am interested to know whether he supports it now. Despite this evidence, he still finds himself unable to support the policies that are working on our borders.

The Leader of the Opposition's standards are not high, because he was able to agree with former Prime Minister Gillard when he did not even know what she had said. He does not have terribly high standards when it comes to these things, but I would hope that having seen the success on our borders he would be able to bring himself to admit that those on the other side got it wrong on our borders. They got the policy wrong. Now when they see a policy working they should embrace it.

The people of Western Australia have to go to a Senate election and they know what this coalition stands for when it comes to our borders. There is no doubt about what those on this side stand for when it comes to border protection, but on that side it is a complete blank page. You would not know what this Leader of the Opposition thought about anything. He needs a GPS to find his principles when it comes to anything. On border protection it is no different, because even when it is presented to him, despite the fact that he declines to attend briefings, he still does not believe.