Michaelia Cash (WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Immigration) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister representing the Minister for Immigration and Citizenship, Senator Lundy. How many IMAs did the Gillard government originally budget for in the 2012-13 financial year? How many have arrived to date in the 2012-13 financial year? What is the difference between those two numbers? Can the minister confirm that earlier today yet another boatload of IMAs docked quite literally on Croker Island, 229 kilometres off the coast of Darwin and a mere three nautical miles from the mainland?

Kate Lundy (ACT, Australian Labor Party, Minister Assisting for Industry and Innovation) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The cost of IMA management and the details you have asked about will of course be updated in tonight's budget. The Gillard government is committed to implementing the recommendations of the expert panel on asylum seekers, of which reopening Manus Island and Nauru were priority recommendations to stem the flow of boats and to prevent the loss of life on dangerous journeys to Australia. As members of the expert panel have said many times, the results—

Honourable Senators:

Honourable senators interjecting—

John Hogg (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! It would be helpful if those who are talking across the chamber would cease to do so.

Michaelia Cash (WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Immigration) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I raise a point of order in relation to relevance. I understand that you do give ministers quite a wide ambit when they are responding to questions. However, the minister in responding to my question stated in relation to the figures that I asked for that they will be updated tonight. Well then, quite frankly, that is the end of the answer to that question and nothing further should come from the minister. The second question that I asked was whether or not the minister could confirm that a boat has or has not quite literally docked on Croker Island today. Again, the answer to that is merely a yes or a no, and no further information is required.

John Hogg (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I cannot instruct a minister on how to answer the question. I have said that before. The minister has one minute and 30 seconds remaining to address the question. I invite the minister to address the question.

Kate Lundy (ACT, Australian Labor Party, Minister Assisting for Industry and Innovation) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

What an interesting way to approach a point of order. As I was explaining, placing the context of that question is incredibly important. As I was saying, the costing of managing boat arrivals is a complex matter. It depends on the average number of people in detention and the average length of their stay. It depends on how we hold people—whether they are held in community detention or indeed in the community on bridging visas. It depends on family size, security setting and the location of facilities. Mr President, the opposition cannot have it both ways. They cannot complain about the costs associated with the arrival rate while continuing to stand in the way of further measures recommended by the expert panel—like the Malaysia arrangement, which would have had a real impact on arrivals as part of the broader suite of measures that was recommended.

John Hogg (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I do draw your attention to the question.

Kate Lundy (ACT, Australian Labor Party, Minister Assisting for Industry and Innovation) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, this is directly relevant to the question. It was about additional arrivals.

John Hogg (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! No, this is not for debating. I have drawn your attention to the question. You have 21 seconds remaining.

Kate Lundy (ACT, Australian Labor Party, Minister Assisting for Industry and Innovation) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The opposition have gone from saying that they would stop the boats within months to giving no commitment that they could achieve it over the course of the next parliament. So, in asking me about recent arrivals of boats, it is entirely relevant to reflect upon the opposition's policies in this area, which are specifically and deliberately unhelpful to achieving the goals that the government has— (Time expired)

Michaelia Cash (WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Immigration) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask a supplementary question. I refer to the fact that, despite the government budgeting for what was 5,400 IMAs for the 2012-13 financial year—which was revised up on a number of occasions to ultimately 12,000—20,861 have arrived on 332 boats this financial year and over 24,000 people on 391 boats since the last election. Will the minister confirm that the budget produced prior to the 2010 election has blown out by over $5 billion, thanks to your failed border protection policies?

Kate Lundy (ACT, Australian Labor Party, Minister Assisting for Industry and Innovation) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

) ( ): I completely reject that question because clearly, if the coalition were supporting the government's approach and supporting our expert panel recommendations, including the Malaysia arrangement, it would have had a far greater impact on boat arrivals. So it is entirely hypocritical and disingenuous of the opposition to stand up in the chamber and criticise the government in relation to boat arrivals when they steadfastly refuse to support the measures that were recommended by the expert working panel. They do this, Mr President, because they put their own political interests ahead of the national interest and, indeed, ahead of the lives of people who are lost at sea as a result of their ridiculously obstructive behaviour on this—

Honourable Senators:

Honourable senators interjecting—

John Hogg (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order, on my left and my right! If you wish to debate it, the time to debate it is in about another three minutes. Senator Lundy, continue.

Kate Lundy (ACT, Australian Labor Party, Minister Assisting for Industry and Innovation) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you. As I said, Mr President, it is entirely hypocritical and disingenuous of the opposition to stand up and criticise us about the number of boat arrivals, given the political stance they have taken on our proposals to implement the expert working panel's recommendations. (Time expired)

Michaelia Cash (WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Immigration) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask a further supplementary question. I refer to the departmental secretary's response to the February estimates questions about the government's budgeted reduction in spending on illegal boat arrivals of $1 billion this financial year and a further $1 billion next financial year, and I quote:

Senator CASH: … do those figures represent what stopping the boats would look like?

Mr Bowles : Yes.

Given that there have been 7,889 illegal arrivals on 112 boats since that response, how can we believe anything the government says when it lives in fiscal fantasy?

Kate Lundy (ACT, Australian Labor Party, Minister Assisting for Industry and Innovation) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Once again, the premise of this sort of question has to be rejected entirely because it is based on the fact that the opposition will not support the expert working panel's recommendations to us about how to manage the arrivals. I think it is well understood that there is considerable volatility in the international circumstances that drive people to flee. But we are dealing with a coalition that voted the Malaysia arrangement down. They voted it down. So to stand there and ask questions about the rate of arrivals and relating to the budget associated with the high cost of managing that rate of arrivals shows that they are still prepared to score political points over both the national interest and the lives of people who are conned by people smugglers to pay their life savings to cross dangerous seas. What a shameful opposition you are.

Stephen Conroy (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask that further questions be placed on the Notice Paper.