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 benefits to all Australians of a well-managed national security agenda? Why is it important to maintain strong and consistent border protection policies? 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

Thank you very much to the member for Bonner for his question, and I thank him very much for his concerted effort in making sure that our country can keep the boats stopped and make sure that the people smugglers don't get back into business. I will tell you one thing: if this man here, this Leader of the Opposition, had a one-seat majority in this place, the boats would be coming like an armada across the seas. There is no question about that. Without the one-seat majority on this side, the Labor Party would still be presiding over 1,200 deaths at sea.

Mr Keogh interjecting—

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

The member for Burt will leave under 94(a).

The member for Burt then left the chamber.

Mr Watts interjecting—

The member for Gellibrand will leave under 94(a).

The member for Gellibrand then left the chamber.

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

The Australian public should be in no doubt whatsoever that if this Leader of the Opposition was Prime Minister of this country, if they had a one-seat majority in this House, there would be another 17 detention centres open with another 8,000 children put into detention, because that is what happened when Labor was last in government. That's the reality when you have a leader, as we've got in this Leader of the Opposition, who has no ability to stare down the Left of his party, no ability to deal with the threats at our borders and no ability to deal with the very serious threat to national security. Why do people say of this Leader of the Opposition that he's shifty and that he's shonky and that he's shady? It's because he was at the centre of every shady, shonky and shifty deal when he was leader of the union movement.

Let me say, if people don't know where this Leader of the Opposition stands in relation to this very important issue, it is because of the positions he has adopted over a long period of time, including when he was a founding director of GetUp! The Australian public knows that GetUp! is a front tor the Labor Party and for the Australian Greens. The CFMEU gave them $1 million last year. When the Leader of the Opposition was the AWU secretary he gave them $100,000 without authority. And what is their opinion when it comes to this issue of stopping boats? They're running this dodgy, shifty campaign at the moment to bring them here—to bring people from Manus and Nauru here. We know that if they did that the boats would recommence.

So, no wonder people are confused about this Leader of the Opposition and whether he can lie straight in bed, because when he was financially propping up GetUp! he was supporting policies that would again see people drown at sea, would see people in detention, would see thousands of children coming by boat. Yet now, when he's in this position and he wants to be Prime Minister of this country, he's asking the Australian public to believe something very different. The Australian public know not only that this leader is shifty and shonky but that he can't hold a story for more than 24 hours. That's the problem with this Leader of the Opposition. This Leader of the Opposition has been called out by the Australian public, because they know, like many in this place— (Time expired)