Ann Sudmalis (Gilmore, 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 maintaining Australia's strong and consistent border protection policies? Is the minister aware of any threats to the continued success of Operation Sovereign Borders, which I know personally has been so successful?

Peter Dutton (Dickson, Liberal Party, Minister for Home Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the honourable member for Gilmore. In her electorate, people are concerned about border protection. She makes that very good point. In fact, as you move around the country, you see that Australians want strong border protection policies but they understand that, with the Labor Party, they have a very, very weak alternative.

The Leader of the Opposition quite often turns his back in question time when he doesn't want to hear what's being said, but he needs to hear this. I note in the media in the last 24 hours that the justification by the Leader of the Opposition for not nominating a shadow minister for home affairs is that the member for Blair is incapable of fulfilling the position. That is very abundantly clear to people on both sides of the House. I think we can agree on that. He is one of the architects of the disaster of the last week or so. He was for Christmas Island and then he was against Christmas Island. He's hopeless. So let's just put that to one side.

But who could fill the job if he is not able or capable to do it? The member for Corio once showed some interest in this space, but he has demonstrated in the last few hours that he doesn't want this job, and he doesn't want 55,000 Queenslanders to have a job either. It's an outrage. So who would you turn to? Who would be the Minister for Home Affairs and in control of Operation Sovereign Borders if the Labor Party were elected in May? There are a couple on the short list, because they've done the job before. Let's see how their track record went. There's the member for McMahon. On his watch 398 boats and 25 ,000 people arrived. Would you short list him for the job? I wouldn't have thought so. Who else is on this list? What about the member for Watson, our old favourite? He is there whispering away, pretending to talk about anything other than this. Under his watch, 83 boats and 6,600 people arrived and 1,100 children went into detention.

The position of the Labor Party deteriorates every single day. Do you know what they're proposing at the moment? They are proposing that people of bad character can come to our country. We have no power under Labor's law to prevent the transfer of a man accused of conducting a sexual relationship with a 14-year-old girl on Manus Island. He comes here, under the Labor proposal. At the time we're kicking out criminals, the Labor Party are bringing people in with questionable criminal backgrounds. We have no power to prevent the transfer of a man charged with four counts of sexual penetration of a minor—and the list goes on and on. He should be condemned.