Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Climate Change and Water) Share this | Hansard source

I again remind the Senate that the government has demonstrated its commitment to a strong border protection regime. There are a range of matters which remain unchanged from those put in place by the previous government. They include mandatory detention, excision of offshore islands and offshore processing. In addition, as I was outlining in the previous answer, in the 2009 budget an additional $654 million was dedicated to a whole-of-government strategy to combat people smuggling as part of the government’s $1.3 billion strategy to strengthen national security and border protection. The reality is—and the opposition know this—that the reasons for people seeking to come to this nation are a result of the increased conflicts in various nations around the world. That has been documented, that has been spoken about, these are matters the government is seeking to address and we have resourced for border protection consistently— (Time expired)