Bridget McKenzie (Victoria, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

because the places that we have allocated for them to be able to access are being taken by those people who come illegally to our shores. So the government's policies to address that issue are actually resulting in some good news.

Labor's failed border protection policies resulted in an environment where more than 50,000 people arrived illegally, including more than 8,000 children. More than 1,200 are known to have perished at sea attempting to arrive at our shores on the leaky boats, subject to the people smuggler's offensive business practices—and I will go to that a little later. More than 14,800 visa places that would have gone to people offshore, under the Special Humanitarian Program, were given to boat arrivals under Labor and the Greens, so people waiting offshore in terrible circumstances, often already recognised by the UNHCR and others for a chance at resettlement, were denied the opportunity. Twenty thousand additional places within our refugee and humanitarian program, for special humanitarian visas, have been freed up over the 2013-14 year and the next four years by our ensuring that the places are not taken up by those who come illegally by boat. That is in addition to the 1,000 Woman at Risk places that this government and the minister have made available. For the last six months, over 200 days, there has not been an illegal boat arrival, so those places have been allowed to be taken by men, women and children who are currently already assessed as being asylum seekers and able to take advantage of seeking asylum within our nation's borders.

We are not going to get into a policy of appeasement for people smugglers. We will seek to frustrate them at every single turn. It is a very flexible business model. For instance, in response to government policies, the people smugglers are offering 10 people for the price of nine, or 'buy nine, get one free'—I am referring to an ABC article—and other discounts, multibuy offers et cetera. This is the flexibility and the determination that the people smugglers use in order to prey on very, very vulnerable people in overseas situations. This is the business model we are seeking to break, so that those who are assessed as asylum seekers appropriately under the UNHCR can find safe haven within our shores and seek to build and contribute to our nation and go forward, as so many have previously.

We have heard commentary today about the secrecy of the government, particularly with our Operation Sovereign Borders Joint Agency Task Force. I would argue that the greatest way we can actually address— (Time expired)