Michaelia Cash (WA, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Immigration and Border Protection) Share this | Hansard source

I too rise to contribute to the motion moved by Senator Hanson-Young. In listening to Senator Hanson-Young's contribution, Senator Hanson-Young posed the question: what are we afraid of? Let me tell you what we on this side are afraid of. We are afraid that if we re-implement the policies that Senator Hanson-Young supported for six years in this place, the policies that those on the other side introduced despite our pleas that they do not roll back the Howard government's border protection policies, we will see yet again more people getting on leaky boats; that we will see what occurred under the previous government, where men, women and the children whom Senator Hanson-Young speaks so passionately about in this place were drowning. That is the direct result of the former government's policies.

In excess of 1,200 men, women and children died at sea. I ask Senator Hanson-Young: when those deaths were confirmed, why did she not come into this place on each occasion and give an impassioned speech like she has done today? The answer is that it did not suit her political purposes. We do not want to see any more people put their lives at risk and get on a boat and quite possibly drown, like the more than 1,200 men, women and children who died as a direct result of the policies that Senator Hanson-Young is yet again promoting in this place. I will stand here quite proudly and say that.

In 2007, when the former Howard government lost office, there were four people in immigration detention. The immigration detention network was costing the Australian taxpayer less than $100 million per year. Fast forward to 2013, after six years of the Rudd-Gillard-Greens alliance, where did Australia end up? In excess of 50,000 people came here illegally by boat, in excess of 1,200 people were confirmed to have drowned at sea, and there are in excess of 14,000 people who did not have the means nor the opportunity to leave the UNHCR camps that they have found themselves in for not one year, not two years, but 20 years. That is the number of years that the people who came to my office in Perth were in camps for in the Congo—20 years. And each one of their children was born in a camp. Yet Senator Hanson-Young is prepared to stand up in this place and say that the Greens are prepared to turn their backs—Labor as well, because it was their policies that the Greens supported—on the millions of people who are languishing in UNHCR camps because they do not have the means. Those people do not have the opportunity to get on a plane, to get visas to two or three different countries, to touch down in Indonesia and to pay a people smuggler to come to Australia. This government is not going to do that. We are going to defend those people who are in camps. We are not going to implement policies that discriminate unfairly against those persons.

We took those policies to the 2010 election. There was an overwhelming swing towards the coalition. We took those exact same policies—we made no excuses for our policies—to the 2013 election and the Australian people cast their vote. When it came to border protection, they knew what they were going to get if they voted in favour of a coalition government, and they voted overwhelmingly in favour of a coalition government. You only have to look at the numbers in the Senate today to see that the Labor Party have been reduced to but 25 senators, and they were comprehensively thrown out of the other place. When the Australian people voted on 7 September 2013 they knew what they were voting for, and they overwhelmingly voted for it.

There are two parts to this motion. The second part is in relation to 'the fate of the 153 asylum seekers who remain unaccounted for'. As I said in question time today, senators are aware that this matter is currently before the High Court. I understand that the court may have taken a short break but will be resuming. The Abbott government respects the court processes and we are awaiting the decision of the court. So, in relation to that part of the motion, it would be inappropriate for me to comment any further. But in relation to the first part of the motion—'the Abbott government’s continued secrecy over the interception and transfer of asylum seekers on the Indian Ocean'—there is no secrecy. In relation to on-water matters, again the Australian people knew when they cast their votes for us at both the 2010 and the 2013 federal elections that they were voting for the coalition's policies—not for the failed policies of the Greens and Labor from 2008 until 2013; they were voting for the coalition's policies. These are strong border protection policies. We make no excuses for that. They are saving lives at sea. Since we implemented OSB and turn-backs, we have not lost one life at sea—