Jane Prentice (Ryan, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Attorney-General. Will the Attorney-General please update the House on the importance of strong and consistent border protection measures? Is the Attorney-General aware of alternative approaches that would put Australia's strong borders at risk?

Christian Porter (Pearce, Liberal Party, Attorney-General) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for her question. The member is very well aware that this government has turned back 33 boats, resulting in over 800 people being returned. On top of that, more than 2½ thousand people have been prevented from boarding leaky, dangerous vessels, run by people smugglers, which would otherwise have been bound for Australia. In total, Operation Sovereign Borders has disrupted 80 ventures and stopped more than 3,300 people arriving in Australia unlawfully. Preventing people from getting on those boats prevents men, women and children from drowning at sea. It is as simple as that.

The fact is that the alternative was probably the greatest public policy failure in Australia's history. Under members opposite, 50,000 people arrived on over 800 boats; 8,000 children went into detention; and 1,200 men, women and children drowned at sea. Our approach—which was designed by the Prime Minister, which we have held fast to for five years and which has stopped the boats and saved lives—has always had as a central pillar the commitment to offshore processing. There is now, as we are all aware, a bill in the Senate that is designed to weaken that central pillar of our successful border protection policy. I'd like to say two things to all members present with respect to that bill. The first is that people are already transferred to Australia where that is medically necessary and appropriate. That already happens. The practical effect of the legislation before the Senate is to achieve nothing more than to weaken our borders and send precisely the wrong message to the people smugglers and their potential victims, which causes the loss of life at sea.

The second thing I say with respect to it is that, as Attorney-General and acting home affairs minister, I've offered briefings at the absolute highest level to all members of the crossbench. I thank crossbench members who've accepted those briefings, even when their ultimate view might differ from that of the government, but I must say to members who appear to commit to supporting a position which would weaken our borders on an issue as critical as this: to not accept those briefings—not hear from the people who understand all of the dimensions of this tragic problem and can say with authority, because they have been at the coalface of this problem, what the outcome of that bill in the Senate might mean—is unbelievably unwise, and I think their electorates deserve better than that. They must hear from the experts before they make that decision (Time expired)