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

Not only will the government not be supporting the amendments that were made yesterday in the House of Representatives to this bill, the government will not be supporting this bill, full stop. On this side of the chamber, the Liberal-National government, we understand that a federal government, the Commonwealth government of the people, has a fundamental responsibility to its nation and to its people, and, that is, of course, to maintain border security at all times. This government makes no excuses at all for the position that it takes.

What we saw last night in the House of Representatives was Bill Shorten, putting himself forward as the alternative Prime Minister of this country, and the Labor Party attempting to weaken Australia's borders from opposition. Imagine what will happen if Mr Shorten was ever elected as the Prime Minister of this country.

The Australian people have a very, very clear choice before them as we head towards a federal election. The Morrison government stands firm and makes no excuses for putting in place the border protection policies that have effectively stopped the people smugglers' trade. As the Prime Minister has stated, when it comes to border security in Australia there is no middle ground; there is only the right ground. You do not blink when it comes to border security, because to do so is to effectively capitulate to the people smugglers. You do not negotiate when it comes to border security. As Mr Howard has always said, the Australian government, the Liberal-National government, are firm believers: 'We will decide who comes to Australia and the terms upon which they come.'

We are told that this bill will effectively not really have any effect on the current situation in relation to our borders, and yet we have the Leader of the Australian Greens happily telling people about it. As has been tweeted by a journalist this morning, Greens leader, Richard Di Natale, says he thinks doctors will send several hundred refugees to Australia for assessment or treatment under the bill passed yesterday—several hundred refugees. Unlike those opposite, who voted last year for this bill without the benefit of listening to our security agencies, we will always listen to our intelligence agencies, and their advice is clear: any weakening of our current border protection policies will reopen the people smuggling trade, and we will once again see the deaths at sea that we had last time, the children in detention and the reopening of detention centres.

In relation to Senator Di Natale's boasting that doctors will be sending hundreds of refugees, this is the type of people who the minister will be forced to bring to Australia on the say-so of doctors under the Labor Party's amendments: people charged with bad conduct but not convicted of offences under foreign laws or convicted but sentenced to less than 12 months in prison. As we know, other countries do not have the stance we have in relation to certain crimes. A number of countries hand down lenient sentences for things like domestic violence—beating your wife—or paedophilia, if they hand down any sentence at all. It is very hard to convict people of things like rape in some countries because a woman's testimony is worth much less than a man's. A person charged but not sentenced to, say, murder or paedophilia on Nauru will not be caught by this exemption. There is a very important reason you stand firm on border protection, and the Morrison government will never blink.