Ross Vasta (Bonner, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Immigration and Border Protection. Will the minister inform the House what action the government is taking to clear the backlog of more than 30,000 asylum claims by illegal maritime arrivals that were not processed by the former government?

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

I thank the member for Bonner for his question and I thank the many members on this side of the House who continue to show an interest in this topic, because there have not been any questions from those opposite now for more than 100 days on the issue of border protection either to me or to the Prime Minister. So it would seem, as I have said before, that the success we are having in stopping the boats is stopping the questions as well from those who sit opposite. And I am not surprised because anytime they may dare to ask a question—

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

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

Is it my lucky day? Is it? Is it? Any day they seek to ask a question in this place there will be the opportunity to remind those opposite of their hopeless failure while they were in government.

On this issue, it is true that Labor left behind a mess on our borders, but they also left behind more than 30,000 people, more than half of those who arrived on their watch, without processing them. Twenty three thousand of them they did not even commence processing. So I found it strange on the weekend that the member for Corio said that we needed to start processing people. Where was he from August 2012 to the election in September 2013? Completely absent, I am sure.

But we are getting on with the job, and the way we are getting on with the job is that, first of all, you do not add to the problem. What you do is you do not add to the problem, and we have not had a successful venture for people smugglers in over six months. But the next thing you do is you start to process them. We put in place temporary protection visas, which were disallowed by Labor and the—is this is a question? Is it? Is there a chance?

Richard Marles (Corio, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Immigration and Border Protection) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Madam Speaker, I rise on a point of order on relevance. The High Court has just slapped down the minister's processing policy. The question that he needs to answer—

The SPEAKER: This is not argument. The member will resume his seat. And I would suggest to the member for Corio that he study the practice and find how properly to use a point of order. It is not an invitation to merely have an argument. The call goes to the minister.

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

Thank you, Madam Speaker. We put in place temporary protection visas which were disallowed by Labor and the Greens—exactly what they did back in 2008. And guess what happened after it—50,000 people turned up on 800 boats and almost 1,200 people died. On the weekend we still heard the shadow minister unrepentant about the fact that they do not think temporary protection visas have anything to do with this proposition. What those opposite need to understand is: this government will not provide permanent visas to those who arrived illegally by boat. It will not happen—not ever. And if you want to try me on it, you try me on it. The people smugglers have tried this government on these issues and they have failed, and we are prevailing. If you want to try to intimidate this side on border protection, do your best, because you will fail. This government will not buckle on our borders. We will not buckle to people smugglers; we will not roll over to the chanting and choruses that come from around the country calling on people to roll back border protection measures. We know the Labor Party will do it; we know the Labor Party will do it every time. But this government will never buckle on our borders—ever.