Michaelia Cash (WA, Liberal Party, Minister for Women) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Bushby for his question. I am pleased to advise the Senate that earlier today our legislation to strengthen the Migration Act passed the House of Representatives. It is critical that we send a clear and unambiguous message to the people smugglers that there is no backdoor entry into Australia. We, on this side of the chamber, always have been and always will be committed to stamping out the vile people-smuggling trade. We are committed to ensuring that people do not risk their lives getting on leaky boats to make that perilous journey to Australia.

If there is one thing that we can all be very proud of, it is that Australia is built on the foundation of mutual respect. Australians understand that it is their government that determines who comes to this country and the circumstances in which they come, not the people smugglers. This responsibility should never be abrogated to anybody, let alone the criminal people-smuggling syndicate. It is a fact that those on the other side seem to forget: these criminal people smugglers run a multimillion dollar business. They are not sending people to Australia out of the goodness of their hearts. They are sending people to Australia at a very, very high cost. And that is not just a cost in terms of the cost which they charge for the boat ticket to Australia but it is also, as we know, a very high cost in terms of those people who die at sea. We can never forget that under the former government, because of their failure to take responsibility in relation to border security, 1,200 people lost their lives at sea. We will never allow that to happen again.