Nigel Scullion (NT, Country Liberal Party, Deputy Leader of the Nationals) Share this | Hansard source

No, that was your answer. I will take the interjection. That was your answer, and as a consequence of that policy another 18,000 people arrived on boats. Don't be in denial. Accept it. It is the way. Accept that you have completely failed. Then you can actually get better at it.

I can tell those senators on the other side that tragically it goes on. Remember when, on 25 November 2011, you decided to make the bridging visa announcement: 'That'll fix it.' We said, 'Look, you really need a whole suite of things.' Two hundred and sixty-four boats have arrived since that announcement. It does not sound to me as if it is stopping too much. It does not sound as if it is stopping anything at all. Nothing that is associated with your policy has stopped the boats and the misery associated with them. Again, we have had another crack on: 'We've decided that we'll do the single-assessment system. We'll bring in the single-assessment system on 24 March.' How did that work for you? Another 233 vessels, with 14,496 people. I do not think that is working for me. I do not know about you, but it does not appear that that is something that is really going to change anything at all.

Sadly, to once again get the sort of response we have had from the other side is just a presentation of denial unless you change your policies significantly. I think we have been pretty open-hearted about this. We have offered policies that work. We have simply said, 'Adopt the entire suite of policies from the Howard government, who had zero people and zero boats'—not a bad thing to aim for. I think it is quite reasonable. Our claim to stop the boats and the misery, of course, is based on good policy, and I think that we will not accept that those on the other side have any idea about how to control our borders through good policy unless they first of all stand and say, 'I have failed.' (Time expired)