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

The answer to Senator Fierravanti-Wells’s question is no. The allegation is that if boats arrive you are weak on border security, even though you intervene. On that basis the Howard government was weak on border security, because 12,000 people arrived in three years, and Malcolm Fraser was weak on border security, because a couple of thousand arrived in two years. It is a nonsense.