David Johnston (WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Defence) Share this | Hansard source

Nobody wants to see hundreds of men, women and children travelling from small islands in Indonesia—travelling from Sri Lanka and Pakistan—to the north-west coast of Australia on small leaky boats. Nobody wants to see that. But the bumbling, fumbling, naive, negligent policies of this Minister for Immigration and Citizenship and this government have meant that we have seen a massive increase. Here are the facts that these speakers from the government simply refuse to acknowledge. In 2003-04, we had one boat; in 2004-05, we had no boats; in 2005-06, we had four boats; in 2006-07, we had five boats; in 2007-08, we had three boats; but in 2008-09, the one year that Labor has had total and sole responsibility for, we have had 20 boats and 763 arrivals. There was one yesterday, so I think it is now 21, but who is counting, because the number changes so regularly.

These government senators talk about the ‘dark time’ when John Howard and the coalition were in charge of immigration. The dark time was when border protection came upon this country as a major issue when we saw massive dislocation in the late nineties. We saw people in the water; we saw people perish. What did we do? We sent the right messages. We sent the right messages to South-East Asia, to people-smugglers and to the people who would pay the people-smugglers—the desperate, sad people who would pay, as the AFP used to tell me when I was the minister, US$18,000.

These ministers and members of the government delude themselves. The Indonesian ambassador has said that we have sent the wrong message; the changes in policy are being used as a marketing tool. That is what he said, but we do not believe him over there in the government because it is not convenient and does not fit our spin. The International Organisation for Migration’s chief of mission in Indonesia, Steve Cook, says that people smugglers have taken note of Australian government policy changes and are testing the envelope. But the government do not want to hear that because it does not fit within their spin. Lastly but most importantly, the Australian Federal police have warned the government that the change in policy is sending the wrong message.

I tell you that today I must say I was embarrassed for Senator Arbib. He said that in 2001 we had 5,000 boats. When a senator comes into the chamber, you would expect him to at least spend one or two minutes trying to learn the basic fundamentals of the issues upon which he seeks to give a dissertation. Sadly, it indicates he has spent far too many hours in Sussex Street plotting the demise of his colleagues and enemies within the New South Wales Right of the Labor Party. We had 54 boats, for his benefit. It is not hard to find out the actual facts. There were 4,137 arrivals. I am staggered that he would come in here and talk about 5,000 boats. Obviously he has no concept of the subject matter at hand.

This is spin about the dislocation in Sri Lanka and Afghanistan. When the war was on in Iraq and Afghanistan in 2002 we had no boats. During the Iraq War, 2003 and 2004, we had one boat. I have got to tell you that these guys over the other side will tell you anything that suits them. Their bumbling, naive, negligent policies are going to mean that men and women are on the water between Roti Island and Darwin and Broome. That is what they have done by bringing their naive stupidity. For 11 years they sat in opposition and thought, ‘Well, they are looking after people-smuggling. The AFP know what they are doing. We don’t need to get involved.’ As soon as they change the policy it is used as an advertising tool, as has been explained to them by the Indonesian ambassador. Do you think they are listening? They come in here today and try and skate over and paper over the cracks of their policy. This is absolutely stupid. You are sending the wrong message. This trade, this commercial corruption out there, depends upon the messages that you send. You do not need to be an Einstein to work that out. But this government has not got a clue.

It is laughable that when we had this incident off Ashmore Reef, when the boat burst into flames and exploded, the minister for border protection said to the media, ‘I don’t know anything more than what I have read in the press about this.’ Talk about utterly asleep at the wheel. Minister Debus is just comatose. He is an absolute disgrace. What I said to my department as minister was, ‘As soon as there is an event I must be in the loop, I must have the facts, I must be able to tell my prime minister and indeed the parliament what is going on.’ But let me tell you again what he said: ‘I don’t know anything more than what I’ve read in the press about this.’ If he was run over by a bus tomorrow, who would know? He is utterly asleep at the wheel. He is a disgrace, and he is very emblematic of the sorts of ministerial skills that these guys in the government bring to this very important issue. If you want to bring foot and mouth into this country, if you want to bring typhoid or TB or any of those things into this country, then just look at the style and the ability and the confidence imparted by Minister Debus and indeed the spin we have seen from Senator Arbib with his 5,000 boats in 2001. He does not even know what day it is. They are just appalling, and heaven help us if these boats keep coming.