Concetta Fierravanti-Wells (NSW, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Immigration and Shadow Parliamentary Secretary Assisting the Leader in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Immigration and Citizenship, Senator Evans. I refer to the 20 vessels and the 714 people who have reached Australia since Labor softened our border protection laws. When will the minister accept the obvious and concede that the surge in illegal people-smuggling activities is a direct result of policy changes?

Chris Evans (WA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Government in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I certainly reject the suggestion in the senator’s question because there has been no softening of border security measures under this government. We have one of the toughest and most comprehensive border security regimes in the world, and that is because we retained all of the Howard government’s border security measures—every one of them—and built on them by supplying more funds and more patrols. The border security measures that we have retained include the excision of offshore islands, mandatory detention of all unauthorised boat arrivals, and offshore processing on Christmas Island of unauthorised arrivals. We have also maintained and extended extensive air, land and sea patrols; we have put a priority on the prosecution of people smugglers; and we have heightened the strategic regional engagement of source and transit countries to address people smuggling.

We are absolutely committed to trying to stamp out people smuggling. We are working very hard to try to ensure that this evil trade is shut down, but we are dealing with a surge in people smuggling in the region. It is a surge that is impacting on all our neighbours as well. We are absolutely committed to maintaining strong border security measures and to doing everything we can to attack the people smugglers and disrupt their operations. That commitment is absolute and that commitment will be reinforced in tonight’s budget. Since coming to office, we have already taken additional measures to strengthen border security, and more will be done to ensure that the strongest possible border security measures are in place. We reject any suggestion that there has been any weakening of border security, and the figures and the evidence prove it.

Concetta Fierravanti-Wells (NSW, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Immigration and Shadow Parliamentary Secretary Assisting the Leader in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask a supplementary question. Clearly the minister is not familiar with the 26 initiatives and projects that have been changed in his department, but my question is: has the minister familiarised himself with the Australian Federal Police advice warning that changes in the area of border protection will lead to an increase in people smuggling into Australia? If not, why not?

Chris Evans (WA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Government in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

As the senator would have learnt from all the discussions on these issues in recent times, we are experiencing a surge in people-smuggling activities as a result of the displacement of persons from countries in turmoil and war. Since the situation in Afghanistan deteriorated, we have seen tens of thousands of people fleeing Afghanistan, and we have seen many Afghanis who were residing in Pakistan fleeing Pakistan because of the deteriorating security circumstances there. And, of course, we have seen the war in Sri Lanka lead to an increased movement of people there.

At the recent Bali conference, all of our regional neighbours committed to a joint approach to try to tackle the problem of increased unlawful people movement in our region. We are going to be working with our neighbours to try to solve this growing problem. (Time expired)

Concetta Fierravanti-Wells (NSW, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Immigration and Shadow Parliamentary Secretary Assisting the Leader in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask a further supplementary question. That is, of course, the focus on push rather than pull. Given the need to accommodate the hundreds of extra asylum seekers as a result of Labor’s softer policies, does the minister agree with his colleague, Mr Danby, that the Christmas Island detention centre is a grandiose waste of money and a white elephant?

Chris Evans (WA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Government in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I have always made clear that the Christmas Island detention centre will be utilised by the Labor government because it was the Howard government’s major investment in detention facilities. Senator, you ought to pay attention. That has been the consistent policy of this government. It was announced at the election that we would process people on Christmas Island. The Howard government spent $400 million, under a project supervised by Senator Minchin, on building an 800-bed detention centre. So the Howard government invested $400 million in the detention centre, and they anticipated the need for 800 beds. They had the foresight to know that there would be surges in the future that would require a capacity of at least 800 beds plus other facilities on Christmas Island. I commend them for their foresight, although I think $400 million was a very high price to pay.