Rowan Ramsey (Grey, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Immigration and Border Protection. Will the minister update the House on the success of Operation Sovereign Borders and any recent actions to prevent illegal boat arrivals from reaching Australia.

Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Minister for Social Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Grey for his question and commend him, and the rest of the class of 2007, on completing seven years of service in this House. It has been 127 days since there was a successful venture to Australia. That is almost as long as it has been since the member for Corio has asked me a question. I can report to the House that there was a further venture which was disrupted over the last couple of weeks, concluding over the course of the weekend, from Sri Lanka. A venture was turned back in accordance with the policy of Operation Sovereign Borders. These ventures are very few and far between, but I can assure the House that Operation Sovereign Borders remains at absolute full strength to stop people smuggling to Australia.

Thirty-seven of the 38 persons on that vessel were returned after the rigorous and robust screening process that was conducted to ensure that Australia's non-refoulement obligations were not violated. One person has been transferred to offshore processing. All of this means one thing: we again sent a strong signal that, because of the turn-back policy of this government, the way to Australia for people smugglers remains closed. People on this side of the House understand that. Even the people smugglers understand it. Turn-backs are critical to stopping people smugglers.

There is one person who still does not get it. That is the Leader of the Opposition, who still thinks that turn-backs do not work, despite the evidence that is in front of his face. Not only does he not get it but he would not do turn-backs if his party were ever to sit on this side again. What we have is a Leader of the Opposition and a Labor Party that will not turn back the boats but bring back the boats if they are ever given the chance of protecting our borders again. The Leader of the Opposition likes to think of himself as a small target when it comes to policy. But I can assure him that he is a very, very large target when it comes to border protection. This is not a small target on border protection; he is just small and weak when it comes to border protection. We have seen this in his absolute denial of the success of the policies that are stopping the boats.

If you want someone to photo-bomb someone else's election victory, then invite the Leader of the Opposition. If you want someone to stop the boats and protect the borders, then look this way. This is the team that has got it done. On the weekend, it was not just on boats. On the weekend, we had the second-largest drug detection in our nation's history and the single largest detection of ice—that is 10 million tablets that are not going to find their way onto the streets this summer because of the strong border protection policies of this government in backing the Australian Customs and Border Protection Service, backing the Australian Federal Police, backing the New South Wales police and the New South Wales and the Australian crime commissions. We are stopping the drugs and we are stopping the boats. (Time expired)