Ben Morton (Tangney, 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 benefits of strong and consistent border protection measures? Is the minister aware of any 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 and his genuine interest in, like all members on this side of the parliament, making sure that we keep our borders strong. Thank you very much to the member for Tangney.

This was a big election issue at the last election and the one before that because all Australians, particularly in the modern age, recognise that we have to have strong borders. We cannot have people arriving without documentation, without any story about what country they have come from and the circumstances in which they have come. This country has been very poorly served over a long period of time by Labor governments that have undone successful policies in protecting our borders and allowing people to arrive here in the tens of thousands. We know, for example, that when Labor came into government in 2007 there were only four people in detention, including no children. Yet, under Labor's watch, when they dismantled the successful Liberal government policies of the Howard government, there were 50,000 people who came on 800 boats. There were 8,000 children put into detention, to the great shame of the Labor-Greens alliance. And there were 1,200 people who drowned at sea.

I'm pleased to inform the House that it is 1,116 days today since we have had a successful people-smuggling operation. We have turned back, as part of Operation Sovereign Borders, 31 boats and we have not had any deaths at sea. It's one of the crowning achievements of this government.

When you look at the Leader of the Opposition, you wonder why people don't believe him when it comes to this very issue. Why do people say, 'I don't think this Leader of the Opposition is genuine when he says that they will continue the policies of this government if they are elected at the next election'? I'll tell you why they don't believe this Leader of the Opposition, why they find that he is not a genuine person when it comes to the issue of border protection, and that's because when he was a leader within the union movement he donated $100,000 to the GetUp! movement. He can't find any documentation. He can't find approval for the donation. It comes on top of the $1 million that was donated by the CFMEU to GetUp!. What does GetUp! believe in? GetUp! believes in dismantling Operation Sovereign Borders. The GetUp! movement is a front for the Labor and Green movements in this country. The Leader of the Opposition is saying to the Australian public that's he's tough on borders at the same time as he's donating money to GetUp!, who are absolutely committed to dismantling our policies.

So, if the Australian public at the moment are asking themselves why in their heart of hearts they believe this Leader of the Opposition is duplicitous and can't be trusted, don't look at this man's words; look at his actions, because his actions over his working life have demonstrated that he is untrustworthy. He's been involved in every dodgy deal that his union was a party to and he is misrepresenting the Labor Party's position at the moment, because all of those behind him, as well as GetUp!, do not believe— (Time expired)