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

The senator asks: ‘Is this real or hypothetical money?’ I think we were meant to fall about splitting our sides laughing at that point. It is real money. We are investing real money in border protection. We think border protection is very important. You invest real money in a fire brigade at an airport. You hope that you will not have to ever use the fire brigade, but you invest real money in case it happens. The senator asserts that people will be left there to rot. That is your assertion. It is not the government’s.