Linda Reynolds (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I too rise in support of Senator Liddle's motion. As she has very articulately said, those opposite have no idea of how to genuinely keep our nation safe. They not only don't know how to keep our nation safe but also do not know how to keep our nation secure. We've heard a lot of pious comments and overblown rhetoric from the Greens and pious statements about Operation Sovereign Borders. Our problem on this side of the chamber is not with the amazing men and women who serve in Operation Sovereign Borders. It is about those opposite.

There is probably no-one else in this chamber who has personally witnessed the results and the carnage to human beings of terrorism and serious and organised criminals, which is what people-smugglers are. They commoditise people and offer them false hope. It doesn't start at our waters or on our borders. It starts in source countries. This is where this government has continually been weak. In 2001, I experienced and saw first-hand how John Howard responded. Do you remember? 'We will determine the circumstances in which people come to our nation.' There is a right way that people come to this nation, and there is a way through people smugglers, criminals, who commoditise and quite often cause the deaths of hundreds, if not thousands, of people.

Last time the Labor Party was in government—who can forget? It was 2007 to 2013—what did they do? They did exactly what they are now in the process of doing—putting the people smugglers back in business right up the supply chain through to source nations. What happened when the last Labor government, the Rudd-Gillard-Rudd government, did that? More than 50,000 people paid people smugglers to come to this country. These people endured the most dangerous of all travels, through many countries of safe harbour for many of them, along the way. There were 50,000 people who arrived on more than 800 boats. At least 1,200 people died the most horrific deaths at sea. There is absolutely nothing compassionate about a system that is encouraged and promoted by government policy. You opposite might not have seen what a body looks like floating in the water after a few days, particularly a baby's, but I have, and the men and women of the Australian Border Force who have to deal with the consequences of your policy are forever scarred. Under those opposite, over 8,000 children were in detention because they lost control of the borders. There's nothing compassionate about that. Those opposite opened 17 onshore detention centres for the 8,000 children, many unaccompanied, and for the adults, and two offshore processing centres were opened by those opposite. There is nothing compassionate about that, and many people still in this country are still battling the consequences of being allowed in illegally by those opposite.

As I said, I was part of a very successful coalition government that closed 19 detention centres, saving over $1 billion a year. We removed all children held in detention on Manus and Nauru that were put there by Labor. We ended Labor's regional processing agreement with PNG and signed a memorandum of understanding for the regional processing system in Nauru. We also repealed the disastrous medevac legislation. We successfully resettled or returned more than 1,700 people, including 1,000 under the US resettlement agreement and 450 to New Zealand.

In conclusion, what are we now seeing? It's almost unbelievable to me that those opposite did not learn from the disastrous policies of the previous Labor government. People died. People drowned. People were exploited. People were commodified on false hope and a promise. Those opposite, the boats are starting to return because you've put people smugglers back in business. Shame on you all, because people will die.