George Brandis (Queensland, Liberal Party, Attorney-General) Share this | Hansard source

I will resume my answer. Senator Waters, you attack Mr Dutton. Mr Dutton is the second consecutive coalition immigration minister on whose watch no boats arrived and no-one drowned at sea. Senator Waters, if you and your party had had your way, those policies that saved more than a thousand lives would never have been implemented. Furthermore, although your leader had the good grace to congratulate the government last week, if it were not for the fact that Mr Dutton was one of the two ministers who secured Australia's borders, we would not have been able to give new lives and new hope to 12,000 genuinely needy people from Syria.