Helen Kroger (Victoria, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to respond and to take note of the robotic approach taken by Minister Lundy in answering the question on asylum seekers, which, I have to remind the good Senator Bishop—who clearly was missing in action during question time—was our leading question. The question directed to Minister Lundy, the Minister for Multicultural Affairs, was the first question that was asked today. But in my heart I want to go a little easy on Senator Bishop and Senator Furner, who also responded in this take note debate, because they are both from the Right within the Labor Party and they must be screaming—it must irk them something shocking—to be in alliance with the Greens. It must have cruelled their pitch something chronic. So I do feel very sorry for both Senator Bishop and Senator Furner having to endure an alliance with the Greens since the 2010 election. And the most blatant outcome of that alliance has been the adoption of what in effect has been the Greens policy for onshore processing.

Senator Bishop referred to the numerous policies, computations and permutations that the Labor government under Prime Minister Gillard has attempted in dealing with the asylum seeker issue. We have gone from the East Timor solution to the five-for-one Malaysia solution, which has created a much more catastrophic situation. That is why it was our leading question today, because now this government under Prime Minister Gillard has broken the record books overnight, with more than 25,000 people seeking asylum in Australia. The government has broken the record books, and it is not a record that anyone should be proud of.

During question time today I noted and observed 15 men and women of the Australian Defence Force who were in the public gallery to view question time. Those men and women are currently placed with various senators and members of parliament under the ADF exchange program. They reminded me of the 25 men and women from the Defence Force who have been sent to Manus Island today to prepare that detention centre for the overflow of asylum seekers that are coming here. One of the things that both Senator Furner and Senator Bishop shared today was a lack of appreciation that this government must at some time be accountable for what has happened. Let us not forget the facts, because they would like the Australian public to do so. Those listening to this broadcast know the facts. Let us go through them again.

Since Prime Minister Gillard knifed the former Prime Minister, Mr Rudd, in the back—one of the policy reasons being the flotilla of boats coming here—no fewer than 18,450 people have arrived by boat. Since she announced the opening of Nauru, we have still had 41 boats, with a sum total of 2,485 people. The issue here is the backflip that they did not want to be seen to have—and this is not political point-scoring—but you cannot institute just part of the solution; you need to implement all of the solution. The former Howard government's Pacific solution worked. Let's bring it back in its entirety.

Question agreed to.