Michaelia Cash (WA, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Immigration and Border Protection) Share this | Hansard source

I have to say that I think that was one of the more honest things that Mr Rudd actually said when he was assessing the policies that the former Labor government implemented.

Can I just advise the Senate, in addressing Senator Smith's question, that under the coalition government it has now been 77 days since there was a successful people-smuggling venture to Australia—77 days. This government took a commitment to the people of Australia to the election, that we would break the people smugglers' business model. Unlike those opposite, we are fulfilling our commitment to the Australian people.

In the discussion on immigration policy, there is a myth that those on the Left have a monopoly when it comes to the politics of compassion. It is nothing more and nothing less than a myth. The policies that those on the other side implement, with their alliance partners the Greens, prove this myth to be untrue. It is not compassionate to implement a policy that results in the confirmed deaths of over 1,000 people at sea. It is not compassionate to implement a policy that sees in excess of 6,000 children, with their parents, risk their lives trying to get to Australia by boat. It is not compassionate to implement a policy that denies a place in our humanitarian program to the in excess of 14,000 people who are languishing in United Nations camps overseas for decades and decades. That is what those opposite did. We, on the other hand, are restoring integrity to Australia's borders.