Steve Irons (Swan, 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 recent activities of our federal agencies to protect Australians from threats on our borders?

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

I thank the member for Swan for his question. He will be pleased to know, as I am sure all members on this side of the House will be pleased to know, that one of the things we are obviously doing is continuing to stop the boats. We are doing that with all of the effectiveness that we have done over the course of the time we have been in government. It has now been more than 80 days since that single, solitary venture turned up this year on our watch. We know that, on this side of the House, we will continue to have to do that task, not with the support of those opposite but we will continue to do it on our side of the House and in the parliament only with the support of crossbenchers in the Senate.

Today, we finally got the answer to the question from those opposite on whether they support turn-backs and whether they support TPVs after the election. Having been told by the Australian people that they wanted turn-backs and that they wanted TPVs, they have come into this place today and have said, 'We're going to oppose them. We're going to vote against turn-backs and we're going to vote against temporary protection visas.' When they consulted people about this matter, I bet they did not talk to the constituents of Lindsay; I bet they did not talk to the constituents of Swan or Petrie or Barton or Dobell up in the central coast, or Robertson or Solomon, or any of those places, because if they did they would have found out that the Australian people support the policies of this government to stop the boats.

The Leader of the Opposition does not have the ticker for turn-backs—never has and never will. Only this side of the House can be relied upon to do what is necessary on our borders. And they know that, also, because it is not just on border protection and stopping the boats. It is this government that has had the ticker to fund our border protection agencies, reversing more than $700 million in cuts to our border agencies in the last budget. And you know what that has produced—including an additional $88 million to increase our screening? In the first quarter of this financial year, there has been a 30 per cent increase in the screening of air cargo consignments. We have screened 1,700 more sea containers than was done by the previous government on their watch. There have been half a million additional international post items checked by this government's policies that those opposite refused to fund when they were in government.

In addition to that, we are getting the results through our Customs and Border Protection Service, working with our federal agencies, and I commend them on it. Ninety kilograms of methamphetamine on 9 October was seized in Western Australia. Just recently on the Torres Strait, last Sunday—as the member for Leichhardt will know—9.8 litres of P2P precursors, that would have produced drugs on our streets, was seized. Commendation goes to those who were involved in doing those works, but they are backed by a government who believes in border protection, is prepared to fund it and has the ticker to do what is necessary.