Luke Howarth (Petrie, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Australian public understand Labor's failures when it comes to border protection. But what they may not understand is that more than 8,000 children arrived by boat and that in 2013 the number of children in detention peaked at 2,000 at any one time.

I rise today to inform the people in my electorate of Petrie who have approached me with concerns about the number of children in detention that, as of yesterday, there are only 192 children remaining in detention. This is a significant achievement on the part of the coalition government.

Labor's legacy is a shameful one. There were 1,992 asylum seeker children in detention in 2013. Before Labor came to power in 2007, that number was zero. Under Labor more than 50,000 illegal people arrived by boat on more than 800 boats, and about 1,200 people perished at sea.

It is the coalition government that is getting children out of detention through the reintroduction of TPVs. I am very confident that in the not-too-distant future the number will be at zero once again.

Chris Hayes (Fowler, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

What an extraordinary start to the parliamentary term for this year. On Monday we had the Prime Minister declare that 'good government starts today'—from then! I guess that begs the question: what have we had for the last 17 months? Let me tell you what we have had: a government which has been characterised by being unfair, cruel and out of touch—especially for the people in my electorate of Fowler.

My electorate, apart from being very multicultural, is one where families are on average earnings. They have been directly targeted by the unfairness of this government, particularly by their budget—which they still cannot sell. For families with two kids and on a single income of $65,000 a year, it means a $6,000 cut—that is almost 10 per cent—as a consequence of this government and its budget. In my electorate there are 15,500 families who are on family tax benefit B. They have cut the support for children from 16 to age six and have also made unfavourable changes to the indexation.

I am not sure about all of those on the other side, but I know families in my electorate really valued the schoolkids bonus. It meant $410 per primary child and $824 for a high school student. This government has acted to make life more difficult for working-class families—

Government Members:

Government members interjecting—

Chris Hayes (Fowler, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

and you should have thought about that when you put the Prime Minister back in his job!

Bruce Scott (Maranoa, Deputy-Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order!