Cory Bernardi (SA, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary Assisting the Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Hansard source

In rising to make a contribution on this motion I recall some wisdom given to me very early on in my business career, that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing and expecting a different result. It is pleasing to me that most people in this place have recognised that we could not continue to get the results that we have in respect of our border protection and the arrival of illegal vessels as we have seen over the last four years.

I say 'most' because there are still groups of people in here, within the Greens party, who refuse to accept that the evidence that the change from the policies that worked under the Howard administration to those that were introduced by the Rudd-Gillard administration has resulted in hundreds of boats and tens of thousands of people paying their way to circumvent Australia's orderly humanitarian refugee program as well as our orderly and regular immigration intake, for their own desire to live in this country. More importantly, it ignores entirely the fact that at least 1,000 and possibly more—no-one can know how many more—people have paid money to people smugglers to get on leaky boats and they have died at sea. They have drowned and disappeared without trace.