Ian Macdonald (Queensland, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Northern and Remote Australia) Share this | Hansard source

Before the break at lunchtime we were discussing the Migration Amendment (Reform of Employer Sanctions) Bill 2012. In making my contribution I want to congratulate Senator Michaelia Cash, who led for our side and who delivered a very erudite and persuasive argument on why this bill should be opposed.

For the reasons raised by Senator Cash, I will certainly be opposing the bill. I hope that, in this instance, the crossbench senators, including the Greens political party, agree with us that this bill is not worthy of support.

Before I speak further, I will make a comment on the general issue of immigration. Immigration, these days, is almost a swear word. The current government has completely lost control of immigration into this country and has completely lost control of our borders. Ms Gillard once famously said that every new boat represented another policy failure. Of course she said that during the Howard government when there were only a couple of boats coming in. Since that time, the boats just come nonstop. Ms Gillard was right in one respect—every boat is another policy failure of the Gillard government. It is difficult to enumerate all the policy failures of the Gillard government. It would take more than the 20 minutes I am allocated just to list them. On the issues of border security and illegal entry into our country, the Gillard government takes the cake.