Michaelia Cash (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Since the first boat arrived under Labor’s watch in August 2008, day after day, week after week, month after month the Australian people have had to sit by and watch our strong border security regime unravel before their very eyes. Do they get any answers from the Rudd government as to why this is occurring? Do they get any answers from the Rudd government as to why we see boats being intercepted in Australian waters on almost a daily basis? Does the government stand up, take responsibility and tell the people of Australia how it is going to stop the boats from arriving? No, it does not. In this chamber we are subjected to, question time after question time, the minister indulging in his little game of the politics of avoidance. He avoids answering any question that the coalition puts to him about Labor’s failed border protection regime. What about the Prime Minister? Does he tell the people of Australia what he is going to do to stop the boats from arriving? Again, the answer is quite simply no. Malcolm Turnbull so correctly said:

All we get from the Prime Minister is a daily diet of weasel words, obfuscation and blame shifting. We have seen a Prime Minister, in an abject abdication of leadership, washing his hands of the responsibility for his own colossal policy failures.

When it gets too tough, what does the Prime Minister do? In good old Kevin Rudd style he reverts to Ruddspeak, speaking in verbal knots as he tries to slip and slide away from the answers to the questions—it is not that he cannot answer them—that he does not want to answer. Remember, this is the Prime Minister of Australia who, in response to questions about Australia’s strained relationship with Indonesia, said:

My dealings with President Yudhoyono ... are in first-class working order right across the spread of the bilateral relationship.

We all know what that means—that is nothing more and nothing less than Ruddspeak for: ‘I have stuffed up the relationship with Indonesia, but I don’t want the people of Australia to find out’. Mr Rudd is playing a very dangerous game with the people of Australia. He is failing to discharge his first responsibility as the Prime Minister of this country: to keep our nation secure. Mr Rudd knows this because he has put it on the Hansard record. He knows that this is the No. 1 fundamental responsibility of a government, but instead of taking that responsibility, instead of discharging his No. 1 fundamental responsibility, what does he do? Mr Rudd decides to play the game of politics of appeasement. He plays the politics of appeasement between the left and the right factions of his own party.

Mr Rudd’s policies are not being formulated in the national interest. His policies are all about appeasing the right and left factions of the Labor Party at the expense of the Australian people. Nowhere is the politics of appeasement more obvious than in Mr Rudd’s failure on border security. He deliberately adopts hardline language to appease the Labor Right when he uses the term ‘illegal immigrants’ to describe suspected asylum seekers. Then you have a complete contradiction from him: you have the decision to grant asylum to refugees from a boat that exploded near Ashmore Reef in April ahead of a coronial inquiry that will investigate whether or not the fire was deliberately lit. This can only be a move to appease the left of the Labor Party and to make the left-leaning minister happy.

We all know that the left wing of the Labor Party thinks that Mr Rudd’s stance on border protection is way too hard. And we all know that the right wing of the Labor Party thinks that he is being too soft. Therein lies the dilemma for our great Prime Minister, Mr Rudd. Who does he appease—the Labor Left or the Labor Right? We all know what a true leader would do. A true leader would put aside factional differences and govern in the interests of the nation. But Mr Rudd is not a true leader. He is self-indulgent. He continues to make policies to appease his own people at the expense of the Australian public.

The facts continue to speak for themselves. We have had—but wait, there’s more!—another boat arrive. We are now up to 54 boats and approaching 2,500 people since August 2008 when the Rudd Labor government began winding back Australia’s strong border protection regime. Worse than that, under Rudd Labor it is the asylum seekers who are now deciding who comes to this country and on what terms. This is despite the Prime Minister and the minister continuing to tell the people of Australia that they do not do special deals with asylum seekers. Let me tell you this: yes, they do.

Mr Haase, the member for Kalgoorlie, raised in the other place the case of Mr and Mrs Kemp, who came here from South Africa. They were granted working visas and they applied for permanent residency. But the problem for Mr and Mrs Kemp is that, because the Department of Immigration and Citizenship is in a state of disarray, they have actually missed some important time frames. They are now looking at having to leave this country because the immigration department’s resources have been diverted to looking after those who are getting special deals. They tried contacting the immigration department, but guess what? The department were too busy to actually speak with them. Yet we had a special deal offered to the Sri Lankan asylum seekers which said:

You could have assistance with your refugee applications.

Yes. A highly professional team of Australian officers will be working with you every day to assist you in the process.

What do you say to Mr and Mrs Kemp, who came here and did the right thing? Do you say, ‘Too bad. We don’t have a place for you because we are listening to what the people smugglers are saying’? The Prime Minister of this country needs to be upfront with the Australian people about the impact of his decisions on Australia. He deserves to be condemned.