Zed Seselja (ACT, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I would like to respond to some of the earlier input from Senator Carr before I get to the Greens contribution. Senator Carr, I think, is having a bad day. His question in question time backfired as he sought to criticise the government for things he alleges happened under this government but which in fact happened under the former government. In fact, at that time we saw press release after press release from Chris Bowen about returning asylum seekers to Sri Lanka. Senator Cash started reading some of these out, before the points of order howled her down. But we saw press release after press release highlighting this fact. We saw this hypocrisy on 2 November 2012 from Chris Bowen:

… there are powers available to the government to return people where they do not engage Australia's international obligations—and when appropriate we certainly intend to use them. … We have seen 116 Sri Lankans return home—voluntarily and involuntarily—since 13 August, as people realise that these smugglers only sell lies and false promises about what awaits people in Australia.

Occasionally, the Labor Party, when they were in government, would actually get to the heart of the matter. The problem was that they were never able to manage the policy. I go to the other part of Senator Carr's critique. He claimed that there were political motives here, not policy motives. It is absolutely clear, in the hysterical response, in the misrepresentations from the Australian Labor Party, that it is only about political motives on their part—because, fundamentally, they do not want this policy to succeed. They claimed that it would not succeed. We heard time and time again that we could not stop the boats, that our policy would not work.

The Australian people are far smarter than that, and they see through that. They saw the former government change the policy, and thousands upon thousands of people came to this country. We saw more than 1,000 people drown trying to get here. That is what the Australian people saw under the Labor Party's border protection policies—for what they were. What they have seen since the change in government, since the change in policy, is that this has in fact stopped. The boats have stopped arriving. The drownings have stopped. We are now in a position where we can actually take people from offshore; we could not do that before because we were oversubscribed by people arriving here illegally. That is the fundamental change. Fundamental to that success has been the suite of policies.

The Australian Labor Party would like us to give a running commentary, as they tended to do. They would like us to take the Labor Party prescription, which failed when it came to the protection of our borders. We believe there is a better way, and that is what we are implementing. Lieutenant General Campbell put it well when he talked about why you do not give a running commentary. He said:

I take this responsibility very seriously.

I do not believe in secrecy for secrecy's sake.

The protocols I have established, and which are supported by the Government, for the release of official information related to Operation Sovereign Borders, seek to balance the public's right to know, which I respect, the safety of all involved, which I am responsible for, and the mission which I have been given and which I am determined to achieve.

I say on behalf of the Australian people that Lieutenant General Campbell has done an outstanding job of delivering on that mission.

When we hear the Labor Party and the Greens asking for that running commentary, I would remind them that this is a significant part of what has worked. It was not something that Scott Morrison just plucked out of thin air; it was the best possible advice that he took from the likes of Lieutenant General Campbell. He has followed that advice. He has allowed professionals to get on with the job, and we have seen a change to a very clear message that coming here illegally will not happen anymore.

We have stopped the drownings. We have stopped the boats. Now we have the Labor Party and the Greens wanting our policy to fail. We cannot afford to let this policy fail. All aspects of this policy are critical to ensuring we do not again see the drownings and we do not again see people languishing in camps overseas because they cannot get here because people have greater needs— (Time expired)