Jason Falinski (Mackellar, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Immigration and Border Protection. Can the minister update the House on the importance of strong and consistent border protection policies? Is the minister aware of any alternative approaches?

Mr Albanese interjecting—

Peter Dutton (Dickson, Liberal Party, Minister for Immigration and Border Protection) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is funny that the member for Grayndler should interject, talking about the budget. He has a great interest in the budget, hasn't he? I might take the interjection, if you do not mind, Member for Grayndler.

He is talking about the budget. What we have done in this budget in this portfolio is to give money back where we have closed detention centres. When you were in government and all of the front bench there were sitting around the Gillard or Rudd cabinet table—

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The minister will just refer to members by their correct titles.

Peter Dutton (Dickson, Liberal Party, Minister for Immigration and Border Protection) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

What happened in that day, of course, was that they ploughed billions of dollars into opening detention centres. They ploughed billions of dollars into offshore detention centres. After originally having cut money from the Customs portfolio they ended up having to put more money in to deal with the dilemma of having unravelled John Howard's successful policies when it came to border protection.

It is interesting that the member for Grayndler has taken such an interest in budget matters, because we have seen his comments over the course of the last weekend. They cast our minds back to the glory days of the Rudd-Gillard-Rudd years. It was not just in border protection that the member for Grayndler and the Leader of the Opposition, who were cabinet ministers in that particular government, made decisions around this portfolio; they made decisions on many other matters as well—including of course the pink batts scandal, which was only a $2½ billion waste. And there was the $16 billion that they wasted on school halls. But, in relation to this particular portfolio, the figure so far is up to $13.9 billion—money that we could use to pay for the NDIS and money that we could use to put into schools or into the health department. But instead we are spending money, even today, on cleaning up Labor's mess in the border protection portfolio.

What we can be assured of is that this government will continue the policies that have seen children out of detention. There were 8,000 children in detention under Labor and 17 detention centres opened. We have closed those detention centres and got every child out of detention. We have presided over a model which has not seen a single person drown at sea. There were 1,200 people drowned under Labor's watch. If they are voted in at the next election, the division that we have seen between the Leader of the Opposition and the member for Grayndler will continue. That is what happened last time. We know it is still happening behind closed doors today, where the member for Grayndler is promising the Left of the party a very different policy on border protection if he becomes Leader of the Opposition.

That is his plan. It is part of his pitch. It is what he told the national conference of the Labor Party. He opposed the Leader of the Opposition in relation to boats. One thing that is certain in this place is that if the Labor Party win the next election they will dismantle the successful policies that have cleaned up Labor's mess. There is a lot more to do.