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

Whether you would respond or not, I am telling you that this government will not be discussing the question of intelligence briefings to the government on sensitive national security issues and issues that may involve deployment of Navy and Customs vessels. Clearly, we will not be discussing those and I cannot think that you are serious in your question.

In terms of the second part of the question, the government is facing increased activity in unauthorised boat arrivals at this time. It is similar to three previous peaks in activity that this country has experienced over the last 35 years. The last one was between 1999 and 2001 when the Howard government had to deal with larger numbers of arrivals.