Michaelia Cash (WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Immigration) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answers given by the Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy (Senator Conroy) and the Minister for Finance and Deregulation (Senator Wong) to questions without notice asked by Senators Cash and Cormann today relating to asylum seekers.

I rise to take note of answers given by Senator Conroy and Senator Wong to questions asked by Senators Cash and Cormann. The answer that Minister Conroy gave in relation to the question that I asked him today confirms without a doubt this government's contempt for border protection policy and national security in Australia. I asked what was an exceptionally important question in relation to the almost non-detention of a then convicted jihadist terrorist. The minister, in answering my question, said the opposition were 'engaging in serial, reckless fear-mongering'. If that type of answer does not confirm that, when it comes to national security, those on the other side packed up their bags and left a long time ago, then I do not know what does. Those on the other side are now responsible for the greatest number of illegal arrivals to come to Australia in our history.

As at today, we have 42,520 people who have arrived here illegally by boat. Australia is currently trending at 100 people arriving per day. You have to remember to put that into context. The reason that the current Prime Minister politically executed the former Prime Minister, Mr Rudd—and in a few days we will have the third anniversary of that—was that he had failed to stop the boats. If Mr Rudd had failed to stop the boats, I do not know what the Australian people must think the current Prime Minister has done. Maybe next week that will be the answer to the political execution of Ms Gillard: that Ms Gillard made a number of promises when she took over on 24 June 2010 and she has failed to discharge one of those promises. Let's wait and see what happens next week.

Most policy makers would acknowledge that the No.1 priority of any Commonwealth government is the security of its nation and its borders. If you do not have secure nations and if you do not have strong border protection in a country, then quite frankly you have nothing. If a government is serious about ensuring the security of its borders it will take action in terms of policy that does just that. But, when it comes to securing the borders of this country, this government gave up a long time ago. If we want further proof of that, it is what happened in relation to the Egyptian terrorist—the man with an INTERPOL Red Notice issued against him—who came here by boat, got through our immigration detention vetting process and was released into very low-security detention. The question that the Australian people need to ask is: how does it happen that a convicted jihadist terrorist can present himself to ASIO, the Federal Police and the immigration department and no-one seems to pick up that he is a convicted jihadist terrorist with an INTERPOL Red Notice against his name? The seriousness of the INTERPOL Red Notice has to be taken into consideration, because there was another man who had an INTERPOL Red Notice against his name and that man was Osama bin Laden.

Perhaps what is more serious is the contempt with which the Prime Minister reacted when she was made aware that a convicted jihadist terrorist was sunning it up in the Adelaide Hills. Basically, as far as the Prime Minister and those on the other side were concerned, it was not a breach of national security or a failure to protect our borders; it was just another incident under a failed Labor government. That is just not good enough. The government, through their handling of and response to this incident, have shown Australians that they have well and truly given up when it comes to border protection and national security in this country.