Ross Vasta (Bonner, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Treasurer. Will the Treasurer outline to the House how the government's strong border protection policies are helping us balance the budget and deliver a strong economy? Is the Treasurer aware of any weaker approaches that would result in budget blowouts?

Josh Frydenberg (Kooyong, Liberal Party, Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Bonner for his question. He knows—we know on this side of the House—that politics involves tough choices. Politics involves difficult decisions. And in politics, you can't just listen to the last commentator or the last critic. Sometimes, you really have to hold your line and stay the course. And nowhere is that clearer than in one of the most difficult issues to confront this parliament, which is around border protection, because in border protection you have to put in place policies that are a deterrent to the evil people-smugglers who prey on the most vulnerable in the community. And if you don't get it right, the consequences are terrible. People lose their lives at sea. People end up in detention. There is a budget blow-out.

We all remember Kevin Rudd going to the Australian people in 2007, saying he was a big C economic conservative like John Howard, and he wouldn't touch the most successful border protection policies put in place by that government. But what happened over the subsequent years of the Labor government—or a Labor-Greens government—was that the border protection policies were unwound. Over 50,000 people arrived in over 800 boats. There were 1,200 deaths that we know of at sea. Over 8,000 children were in detention while Labor was in government. And in July 2013, there were 10,200 people in detention, including nearly 2,000 children. Seventeen detention centres had to be opened, and there was a budget blow-out of around $16 billion.

There is a stark contrast. I want to pay credit to the now prime minister and then border protection minister for the work that he did in stopping the boats, closing the detention centres, ensuring lives were not lost at sea, and that children were removed from detention. The benefit of these policies is that we restored order to our program and we increased our humanitarian program from 13,750 to 18,750 a year in 2018-19. And we've closed those detention centres, and we've won the respect of the Australian people for the strong policies that we've put in place, which have not only helped the budget but, most importantly, put an end to the business model of those people-smugglers and put an end to the tragic loss of life at sea.