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 importance of strong and consistent border protection measures? Why is it important that policies be informed by advice and experience? And 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 Tangney for his question. Like all members on this side of the House, we want strong border protection policy in this country. It is essential that we have a consistency of policy, because recent history demonstrates to us what happens if you fail to take the expert advice. What we know is that, when Mr Rudd came into government in 2007, there were four people in detention and no boats were arriving. We know what happened when the Labor government was elected and changed the policy settings and threw out the expert advice on how to deal with the scourge of people smuggling—50,000 people arrived on 800 boats, 1,200 people drowned at sea and 8,000 children ended up in detention. That is what happened when Labor ignored the advice of the experts. That is what happened when Labor listened to the Left of their party, went after Green seats and Green votes in capital cities and denied an opportunity for common sense to be heard. That is the recent history of denying good advice.

Now, Mr Speaker, you might be forgiven for believing that there's an air of deja vu in the public policy debate at the moment on energy, because the Labor Party have received, as we have, expert advice on how to provide reliable energy so that the power doesn't go out and we don't have blackouts like we've seen in South Australia. We've received expert advice about how to deliver power at the most affordable price and we've received expert advice about how to reduce our emissions at the same time. This government is acting on that advice—the same as it did when it came to border protection policy.

And let me predict this: if the Labor Party is elected, if the Leader of the Opposition becomes Prime Minister of this country, I can guarantee you that the boats will recommence; I can guarantee you that kids will be back in detention; I can guarantee you that, tragically, there will be deaths at sea again, because they will ignore the advice from the experts. I'll guarantee you something else: under Labor, as we've seen with state Labor governments, energy prices will be higher and there will be more blackouts for families and small businesses, because they ignore the advice, they are captured by the Left, they are trying to please people in Greens seats in capital cities around the country, and they are doing it at the human expense of families and small businesses around this country. What it shows on a daily basis is that this Leader of the Opposition can't be trusted by any Australian.