Michaelia Cash (WA, Liberal Party, Minister for Small and Family Business) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Smith for his question. As we move towards the next election, there is a very clear choice when it comes to border security. To keep Australians safe the Morrison government understands that you need to ensure that our borders are secure. It is a result of the Liberal-National Party's border protection policies that the people smugglers' business model has been destroyed. In fact, they have been unable to illegally bring people to Australia for five years now. But, as we know, and as Senator Smith knows, this does not happen by accident. It comes because of a very strong minister at the time for border protection, Scott Morrison, and a very strong minister we have now for home affairs, Minister Peter Dutton. It comes because we have put in place policies that are tough and policies that ensure we have constant vigilance. Why? Because we know the people smugglers. They watch very carefully, and they are looking for the first sign of weakness in a government. That sign of weakness means that the borders will be reopened, and what we will see again is people flooding down to Australia.

It is an undisputed fact that the former Labor government were unable to stop the boats. In fact, they used to laugh at our suggestions that we could implement tough border protection policies. I will quote the then-immigration minister Brendan O'Connor. He actually mocked our policies of turn-backs. He told the parliament:

The 'turn back the boats' policy is an element of the 'stop the boats' fraud … Their 'turn back the boats' policy does not exist except in the minds of those opposite.

Labor said we could not stop the boats, and we did. Labor said we couldn't break the people smugglers' model, and we did—a clear distinction between Labor and the Liberal-National— (Time expired)