Paul Scarr (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I'll take that interjection, Senator Watt. It is a good question. Why is this motion, calling upon the Prime Minister to restore Operation Sovereign Borders to its original design, being moved? There are three reasons that I rise to move this motion today. The first is the recent report of almost 40 illegal maritime arrivals reaching the mainland undetected in Western Australia's north in the last week or so. There were almost 40 undetected illegal maritime arrivals on the Australian mainland approximately one week ago.

I want to read from an ABC report in relation to this, just to give everyone listening to this debate the full flavour of what is happening here. It talks about how a local Aboriginal tourism operator discovered 13 of these arrivals, 13 men. With indulgence, I'll refer to the hospitable way in which our local Aboriginal community treated the arrivals. I'll quote from this Aboriginal tourism operator, who preferred to remain anonymous:

They all congregated at the water tap—they were really thirsty.

The report goes on:

He spent two hours with the men waiting for authorities to arrive.

They reported being dropped off in the middle of the night along the rocky shoreline of Pender Bay, and then walking in the bush for four days before being found.

And they begged him for help to get to Sydney to find work.

They begged him to help them get to Sydney to find work. That's what they asked for. The local Aboriginal tourism operator said:

Border Force have a tough job, but there does have to be more layers of surveillance in place. These guys had a success making it here, so there will probably be more turning up.

That is the first reason I raise this motion today: the concern that the Albanese Labor government is not protecting our borders.

The second reason is that we know—it is on the record—there have been at least 311 illegal maritime arrivals, potentially on 13 different vessels, in this country since Labor was elected in May 2022, so this isn't the first issue we've had since Labor was re-elected.

The third reason I rise to speak this motion is that no-one in this country wants us to return to the dark, dark days of the Rudd-Gillard-Rudd government, when we had thousands of illegal maritime arrivals in this country, thousands of children in detention, and a cost of billions and billions to the Australian taxpayer. That's why we're raising this issue. We're actually obliged to raise this issue on behalf of the Australian people.

Back on 26 April 2022, the Prime Minister said, 'The same policy that exists now, Operation Sovereign Borders, will apply under us.' But it doesn't. The Labor government removed one of the key pillars of Operation Sovereign Borders. I have here the document from the coalition announcing Operation Sovereign Borders, and one of the key pillars was restoration of temporary protection visas for those found to be refugees. That was one of the key pillars of Operation Sovereign Borders. It was removed by the Labor government.

The other concerning thing the Labor government has removed is budget allocations for our border security. The irrefutable fact is that maritime patrols and aerial surveillance have dropped. It isn't the fault of the Australian Border Force; it's because they aren't being adequately funded. There has been a budget cut of over $400 million over the forward estimates. There has been a 20.7 per cent decrease in aerial flying hours and a 12.2 per cent decrease in maritime patrol days. This is happening under Labor's watch. It needs to stop, and Operation Sovereign Borders needs to be reinstated.