Claire Chandler (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on this urgency motion brought to the Senate today by my colleague Senator Scarr. And it is critical that we bring this motion to the Senate today because we all know that having control over our borders is essential for the ongoing security and safety of Australia.

It is simply not good enough that people smugglers have, in recent days, exploited apparent weaknesses of our maritime border with reports of 40 illegal maritime arrivals reaching Western Australia. And what is even more concerning is that these latest groups appear to have made their way through Australian waters undetected to arrive on Australian soil. It is clear that people smugglers are once again exploiting the Labor government's weak leadership on border security. There have been more than 300 people on at least 12 boats that have arrived on Labor's watch since the 2022 election. We know that maritime patrols and aerial surveillance have dropped under Labor, as the ABF has failed to meet its targets. There was a 20.7 per cent decrease in aerial flying hours in 2022-23 compared with 2020-21, and there was a 12.2 per cent fall in maritime patrol days in 2022-23 compared with 2020-21. These facts speak for themselves. It is clear for everyone to see that there are cracks that have emerged in Australia's border security under the watch of this Labor government.

This recent maritime arrival is just the latest incident where the Albanese government has been exposed on border protection and national security. We all know that they were caught flat-footed by last year's High Court decision. As a direct consequence of the government's lack of preparedness, 140 hardcore criminals, including child sex offenders and murderers, were released into our community, and it wasn't until recently that we were able to get the full picture of the types of characters who were released. After months of sustained pressure from the coalition, at Senate estimates recently the Albanese government finally released the document that it didn't want the public to see. The government admitted that there are seven murderers, 37 sex offenders and 72 violent offenders among the 149 people the government released into the community following the High Court's decision last year. The government also admitted that seven people breached their visa conditions once they got out and that 18 people have been charged by state and territory police for various offences. Worse, the government admitted that it hadn't made a single application to lock up any of these hardcore criminals released onto the streets, despite rushing through ahead of Christmas the legislation giving them the powers to do so.

This is incredibly disappointing. I think Australians are disappointed with the efforts or lack thereof that this government has made to keep Australians safe and to keep our borders safe. Conversely, we know that the coalition has a strong track record when it comes to border protection, and the results of our border policies speak for themselves. It was the coalition government which broke the back of the people-smuggling trade that was allowed to flourish during the Rudd-Gillard years. We cannot forget that, the last time Labor was in government, more than 50,000 people arrived illegally on more than 800 boats, and there were at least 1,200 deaths at sea. It was the coalition government that restored order and stemmed the flow of illegal boat arrivals through the implementation of Operation Sovereign Borders. Like I say, the facts speak for themselves. There had not been a successful boat arrival in years under the coalition after we introduced Operation Sovereign Borders, and we ended the deaths at sea. Frankly, only the coalition can be trusted to keep Australians safe and our border secure. What we have seen in Western Australia in recent weeks demonstrates that clearly. It was the coalition's strong border policies that stopped the boats, ending both the deaths at sea and the illegal trade of people smuggling.

There is no doubt, from the opposition's point of view, that this government must act immediately to protect Australia's borders from future illegal maritime arrivals and to ensure that our community is kept safe. It is simply not good enough that we have seen instances where boats have been able to navigate through Australian waters and land on our shores undetected. People smugglers are exploiting this government's lax approach to border security, but we know that maritime patrols and aerial surveillance have dropped under this government. There have been more than 300 people on at least 12 boats who have arrived on Labor's watch since the 2022 election. We need to send a strong and clear message to people smugglers that we take the protection of our border extremely seriously, but I have very little faith that that will happen under this government.