Tony Pasin (Barker, 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 of the effect on Australia's humanitarian immigration program of the government regaining control of Australia's borders?

Peter Dutton (Dickson, Liberal Party, Minister for Immigration and Border Protection) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for his question. There is a bit of a theme of the Rudd-Gillard-Rudd years in this question time today, and I would like to continue it in my response to this very important question. All Australians know that it is very important to maintain the integrity of our borders, and this government is absolutely determined to make sure that we keep our borders strong. The Howard government was successful at stopping the boats, and when the Rudd government was elected in 2007 they changed the policy and the boats started again. They started again and they flooded in.

Under the Abbott government, the boats have stopped. The boats have stopped under the Abbott government and we are determined to make sure that we keep those boats stopped because of a few reasons. Firstly, we do not want people drowning at sea. During the Rudd-Gillard-Rudd chaotic and dysfunctional years, we had 1,200 people die at sea. So those people opposite who would get up on their high horse and preach to this government and somehow pretend to us that they are on some sort of higher moral ground, 1,200 people died at sea under the Labor Party and they should be ashamed of it. Not only that but over the course of the Rudd-Gillard-Rudd years, during which Bill Shorten was a member of that cabinet making those decisions, 800 boats arrived with over 50,000 people. John Howard stopped the boats, 50,000 people came under Labor's period of government, and we stopped the boats.

During 2014, one boat arrived. In 2013, under Labor, in a 12-month period 302 boats arrived. People die at sea. There are billions of dollars in cost blow-outs and all of that means that we cannot afford to put money into the humanitarian program. Not only have we saved billions of dollars by stopping boats but, more importantly, we have saved the lives of people who would otherwise have drowned at sea and we have been able to extend the humanitarian program from its current levels up to 18,750 places over the course of the next four years, which will make us one of the most compassionate countries in the world.

Labor took a decision to lock kids up in detention. Two thousand children were locked up in detention under Labor. We have got that number down to under 200 and it will reduce further. We are working to do that. But if we do not keep our borders strong, if we do not keep Labor out at the next election, the boats will start again, people will continue to die at sea, there will be cost blow-outs and the Labor Party will preside over the same dysfunction that the Leader of the Opposition presided over during the Rudd-Gillard-Rudd years. We do not want to return to Labor and, in particular, we do not want to return to Labor because the boats will not stop and people will drown at sea again.