Bert Van Manen (Forde, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Home Affairs. Will the minister update the House on the importance of strong and consistent border protection policies for Australia's national security agenda? 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 and for the great work he does in his local community to keep his constituents safe. It's been 1,289 days since the last successful boat arrival to Australia. We are very proud of that fact. The member for Forde is particularly proud of that fact. A lot of work has been done on this side of the parliament over recent years to clean up the mess Labor left us when we came into government. At the last election the Labor Party pretended to the Australian public that they would, if elected, have the same policies as the coalition—that they would turn back boats where it was safe to do so, that they would have offshore centres and that they would have the same resolve as this government to stop the deaths at sea and to get the kids out of detention. But what has happened since this Leader of the Opposition has been gripped around the neck by the Left of his Labor Party is that he has walked away from the successful policies that have made deaths at sea a thing of the past. The fact is that we have not seen a boat now in 1,289 days. The Labor Party has walked away from Operation Sovereign Borders and the success that we have implemented over the last couple of years.

We had hoped there would be at least one champion on that side of the parliament who would uphold the right of all Australians to see the boats stopped and see the Labor Party implement the policy. The member for Blair sits there like some clown at the circus whose mouth you pop ping-pong balls into. His head goes backwards and forwards each day. He sits there agape trying to keep up the speed but can't. We were hoping at the recent by-election in Bennelong that Kristina Keneally would be the champion. But, of course, she wants to see an open-border policy. We are hoping that Ged Kearney, in the Batman by-election, could be the champion of common sense. But it's not going to happen, if you have a look at Ged Kearney's record. She said to the International Labour Conference in Switzerland that 'Australian unions explicitly reject the policy of offshore processing of asylum seekers that both major parties have implemented'. She went on to say at the Welcome Refugees rally:

Just think about those three small words—'stop the boats'. Never before can I think of three small words that have left such a permanent and dreadful scar on our national psyche.

Outside of this parliament the Labor Party speak the truth, they speak what is in their hearts, and that is that they want to undo the success of Operation Sovereign Borders. There is not a single person on that side of the parliament who in government would have the ability to stare down the people-smugglers scourge. They demonstrated that under the Rudd and Gillard governments, and every day this Leader of the Opposition demonstrates that he is just as weak. (Time expired)