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

I thank the senator for her question. It has been a daily event, though I see the numbers have fallen as the weeks have gone on. But I am cheered by the prospect that it is 68 days before we have another question time—that is something encouraging. What I do know is that the challenge of dealing with unauthorised arrivals will be with Australia for a long time. It has been with us for a long time and it will be with us for a long time. In terms of the numbers of boat arrivals, obviously one cannot predict that. All one can do is continue to maximise our efforts to prevent people departing from other countries in an attempt to enter Australia by unauthorised boat arrival.

We are working closely with our neighbours to try and stop the increase in activity that has arisen largely out of Sri Lanka and Afghanistan. We have a range of measures in place that are trying to deal with those persons and prevent them from departing. Our border security measures remain strong and they remain in place. We have increased the number of patrols. We have increased the resources for border protection and we have kept in place the key measures associated with that border security with the excision of offshore islands, the offshore processing of persons taken to Christmas Island when intercepted and the mandatory detention of all those intercepted. People are detained, they have their health, identity and security checks and then any claims for asylum are processed.

But it is true that, on the current rate, we will probably see this year’s figure as the fourth largest for boat arrivals in any one year. The top three occurred under the Howard government in 1999, 2000 and 2001, when the numbers were much larger. But this remains a long-term, serious public policy challenge.