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 how the government's actions have kept our borders safe since 2013 and emptied the detention centres that were at full capacity under the previous government?

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

I say thank you very much to the member for his question. He is rock solid, as is every member on this side of the parliament, when it comes to making sure that we have strong and secure borders. There is no better argument for having secure borders than what we have seen in Europe and across the world elsewhere in recent months and recent years, and it is why this government remain absolutely determined to make sure that we send a very clear and consistent message to people smugglers that they will not get back in business.

This government has, over the course of the last 12 months, been able to reduce the number of children in detention. Labor had 2,000 children at its peak in detention. There were 1,200 people who drowned at see when Labor was last in government, in coalition with the Greens. There were 50,000 people who came on 800 boats and Labor had completely lost control of our borders. What was demonstrated at the last election was that Labor had not learnt one lesson, because we know that there are many Labor members who have come into the parliament who are still advocating against the position adopted consistently by this government over the course of the last few years. We will not deviate, because the people smugglers are still there—still there in Indonesia, still there in Sri Lanka, still there in Vietnam and elsewhere—trying to put syndicates together to put people on to boats. One thing that we know is that they could not care less whether those people make land or whether they go to the bottom of the ocean. Mr Shorten went to the last election saying—

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The minister will refer to members by their correct titles.

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

My apology. The Leader of the Opposition went to the last election trying to trick the Australian people into believing they had a united position. Of course, they do not. There are many Labor members—and we are going to go into some detail about their comments over coming parliamentary days—who are still advocating for the Albanese cause within the Labor party, and we know the member for Grayndler has a very different position to the Leader of the Opposition when it comes to policy in this area.

It is absolutely essential that the government continues the work that we have presided over, over the course of the last couple of years. Not only have we been able to stop boats, but we have also been able to get children out of detention. It is one of the crowning achievements of the last 12 months of this government, but it did not come easily. We stared down all of the nay-sayers within the Labor Party. The Leader of the Opposition has no such leadership ability.