Chris Evans (WA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Government in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

I certainly reject the suggestion in the senator’s question because there has been no softening of border security measures under this government. We have one of the toughest and most comprehensive border security regimes in the world, and that is because we retained all of the Howard government’s border security measures—every one of them—and built on them by supplying more funds and more patrols. The border security measures that we have retained include the excision of offshore islands, mandatory detention of all unauthorised boat arrivals, and offshore processing on Christmas Island of unauthorised arrivals. We have also maintained and extended extensive air, land and sea patrols; we have put a priority on the prosecution of people smugglers; and we have heightened the strategic regional engagement of source and transit countries to address people smuggling.

We are absolutely committed to trying to stamp out people smuggling. We are working very hard to try to ensure that this evil trade is shut down, but we are dealing with a surge in people smuggling in the region. It is a surge that is impacting on all our neighbours as well. We are absolutely committed to maintaining strong border security measures and to doing everything we can to attack the people smugglers and disrupt their operations. That commitment is absolute and that commitment will be reinforced in tonight’s budget. Since coming to office, we have already taken additional measures to strengthen border security, and more will be done to ensure that the strongest possible border security measures are in place. We reject any suggestion that there has been any weakening of border security, and the figures and the evidence prove it.