Amanda Vanstone (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

Just as a matter of interest, since the senator opposite, Senator Evans, is so surprised at the concept of working with Indonesia, I will take him back to comments made in 2001 by his now leader. Mr Beazley said then:

Australia can only stop the flood of boats by fixing our relationship with Indonesia. A real solution must be found in Jakarta.

Clearly, at the time, Mr Beazley understood that border protection and people-smuggling issues require serious cooperation. In fact, earlier on the same day, the leader apparently went into a radio station and said:

In the end, the only solution to the problem we now confront resides around the relationship that we have with Indonesia and the attitudes that develop in this region to illegal people-smuggling.

And he went on to say:

What we need to do is exercise a bit of leadership, because we want circumstances where people who come here illegally go back to the point they came from and get processed there.