Llew O'Brien (Wide Bay, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Immigration and Border Protection. Can the minister update the House on the benefits of a well-managed national security agenda? Why are strong and consistent border protection policies important to securing our nation? 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 want to say thank you very much to the member for Wide Bay for his hard work in his electorate, and I want to thank all Australians for the confidence that they've got in this government when it comes to border protection. We have worked hard over the course of the last several years to clean up a significant mess, where 1,200 people drowned at sea. When Labor lost control of our borders, there were 8,000 children put into detention and 17 new detention centres opened. We've got all of those children out of detention, we have closed those detention centres and we have restored integrity to the border protection system in this country.

As the member for Wide Bay points out, the global security environment is deteriorating. It is more important than ever that our country, like many others, keeps our borders secure. The Australian government alone must determine who enters our country and we reassert that sovereign right today. Since we stood up Operation Sovereign Borders, it's been 1,135 days since the last successful boat arrival, though we know that the people smugglers are still in business and they still seek to take money from people and to have them hop on those boats and come to our country.

But it seems that, over the course of the last week, while the Leader of the Opposition has been trying to say to the Australian public that Labor Party policy is the same as the coalition's policy, it turns out that it's not. In fact, the statements of the Leader of the Opposition over the course of the last week demonstrate to the people smugglers, as clearly as they demonstrate to the Australian public, that there has been no weaker leader since this Leader of the Opposition has come into his office than the former leaders of the ALP, in Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard. It is clear that this Leader of the Opposition is as weak as Gillard and Rudd when it comes to boats, and it is clear when you see some of the statements from those members sitting opposite him that they have not learnt a single lesson since the time when they had those drownings at sea and they allowed the 50,000 people in on 800 boats.

The fact is that there were people from Nauru and Manus who came for medical assistance. The arrangement was that, once they had received medical assistance and had been given clearance by the doctors to go back to Nauru or Manus, or indeed back to their country of origin, they should have gone. They're refusing to go and—

Opposition Member:

An opposition member interjecting—

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

We see one member up there screaming and interjecting wildly. He's obviously representing many others on the Left of the party who would undo the policy that has been successful in stopping boats. At a time when the Australian public is watching what is happening in the national security space in this country, it is demonstrated on a daily basis that the Leader of the Opposition simply is not up to the task and, if he were elected at the next election, we would see the boats recommence under Labor as they did in the past.