Luke Howarth (Petrie, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

At the last federal election the coalition promised to stop the boats. That was one of our core election commitments—to stop the boats, and bring an end to the failure of the Labor-Greens policy of opening up our borders to people smugglers. In 2007, the Labor Party came in and immediately reversed the strong Pacific Solution laws that the Howard government had put in place—and why did they do that? Because they thought, 'oh, it cannot be good for Australia; it is not the right thing to do'. But we saw an absolute disaster on our borders for the next six years, with over 50,000 people arriving—500 boats, 1,200 deaths at sea, and 8,000 children put into detention. In the seat of Petrie it was very clear that one of the most important issues for my constituents, besides jobs and roads, was to stop the boats. I am pleased to say that, less than 18 months into our term, we have effectively done that. It was not a three-word slogan, 'stop the boats'; it was actually delivered and it is continually working under Operation Sovereign Borders.

In the last few weeks I have met an Iranian man. He came to this country: he was a Christian man, and he was being persecuted in Iran. I said to him, 'How did you come to be in Australia?' And he said: 'Well, I went to Saudi Arabia. I went there, and then I went to Indonesia'. And I said, 'How did you get from there to here?'. And he said, 'Well, then I actually paid to come here'. I said, 'How much did you pay?'. He said, 'I paid 5½ thousand to come here'. And I said, 'Why did you not stop at Saudi Arabia? Or why did you not stop at Indonesia?' And he said, 'because I wanted to come to Australia'. And I say to the Labor Party, and I say to the Greens, that it is illegal to come to Australia by boat. It is not illegal to seek asylum, but when you travel from Saudi Arabia to Indonesia and then to Australia, that is breaking Australian law. It is the wrong thing to do. And we know that those members opposite who are in the chamber today will immediately reverse this, if they get back into government.

I am very proud of the fact that the coalition have delivered on this policy, that we are saving lives, and that we are down from something like 2,000 children in detention, when we took government less than 18 months ago, to 136 children last week. That is a fantastic achievement. And we want Australia to be a strong multicultural country, with our borders open to new immigrants. But there is a right way to come. It is illegal under Australian law to pay a people smuggler to come to this country by boat. We will continue, along with Operation Sovereign Borders, to ensure that Australia's sovereignty is protected.