Mathias Cormann (WA, Liberal Party, Vice-President of the Executive Council) Share this | Hansard source

There is no doubt the Senate should be spending more time dealing with what is a very important piece of legislation, in particular, given how many amendments have been circulated. The amendments that have been circulated by Senator McKim and Senator Storer present a very serious risk to the integrity of our border protection policy framework. They present a serious risk in that they undermine the effective operation of our offshore processing arrangements. One of the central foundations of our successful efforts to stop the boats, which flooded Australia during the last Labor government, was a three-pronged policy framework. The first part was to turn boats around when it was safe to do so, which was something that former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said could not be done, but, of course, it was done. And it was done under the leadership of none other than our Prime Minister, Scott Morrison. Our Prime Minister, Scott Morrison, is the one who actually cleaned up the mess left behind by two successive Labor governments, with the very active and outstanding support of none other than Senator Jim Molan, who provided significant advice to Mr Morrison in opposition and subsequent to coming into government. So the first part was to turn the boats around when it was safe to do so. The second part was temporary protection visas, and the third was offshore processing arrangements.

Under Labor, 800 boats arrived here illegally with more than 50,000 illegal boat arrivals and more than 1,000 people drowned at sea. Labor is now attaching themselves to a Greens motion, moved by Senator McKim of all people. If Senator McKim is going to be writing the national security policies of the Leader of the Opposition—who wants the Australian people to believe that he is the alternative Prime Minister of Australia—I say to the Australian people: 'Don't risk it. You don't want your Prime Minister to be somebody who is prepared to have his border security policies written by Senator McKim.' You could have knocked me over with a feather when I was advised that Labor had decided—