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 update the House on the importance of strong and consistent border protection measures? What are the risks associated with alternative approaches?

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

I thank the honourable member for his question. It is the case, as all Australians know, that this government is absolutely resolute when it comes to border protection policies. We have taken tough decisions to make sure that we can stop the drownings at sea, to make sure that we can stop the boats and that we can get kids out of detention, and we have closed 17 detention centres.

That has not been the case for every government, for every party, in the Australian political landscape. As we know, the Labor Party, having inherited from John Howard the situation where boats had stopped and there were only four people in detention undid all of that policy, and so, when we went to the last election, the reality was that Labor could only stitch up a deal by working with the unions at their national conference. As people know, you cannot get policy through the Labor Party, unless it passes their conference. So all of the unions come together and they vote for or against policy.

The trouble for the Leader of the Opposition is that the Left and the Right were divided when it came to boat policy, which of course resulted in 50,000 people coming on 800 boats and 1,200 people drowning at sea. What happened was that there was a dodgy deal stitched up at the Labor Party conference between the Leader of the Opposition, because he is the king of dodgy deals, and his friends from the CFMEU. I do not know if my colleagues can see this, but this is talking about—

Mr Hill interjecting—

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

The member for Bruce is warned; the minister knows the rules on props.

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

'Left-wing union offers Shorten boats lifeline—this is by Andrew Probyn and Nick Butterly in the WeekendWest in July of 2015. It says: 'The militant left-wing construction union is expected to swing behind Bill Shorten's embrace of boat turnbacks to ensure the Labor leader is not embarrassed by an ALP revolt.'

What has happened here is that this Leader of the Opposition has tried to fool the Australian public into believing that they actually have in the Labor Party the same resolve to stop boats and put the people smugglers out of business that we do. But we know it is not the case.

We have seen in the headlines of The Australian and elsewhere over the course of the last couple of days that John Setka from the Victorian branch of the CFMEU is a great friend of the Leader of the Opposition. He is a known criminal. He consorts with organised criminal figures and he is a great mate of the Leader of the Opposition. He even went to the election night party of the Leader of the Opposition. What would happen if the Leader of the Opposition became the Prime Minister at the next election? What would happen if Mr Setka was invited into the Lodge, for example? Worse still, what would happen if Mr Setka did not want to leave the Lodge? Imagine if Prime Minister Shorten turned up with a broken arm at question time and pretended he had slipped over at the Lodge, but actually he had been pushed down the steps by Mr John Setka, because that is the way these people operate. And let me tell you, Leader of the Opposition, if you consort with criminals, the Australian— (Time expired)