Jamie Briggs (Mayo, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Member for Melbourne Ports, I do not think it actually was. There was quite a deal of ongoing fighting in Afghanistan during that time. It was not as though our forces experienced reduced action in that time. There have clearly been push factors over the whole period. We accept that there are push factors, but what the government fails to accept is that there are pull factors.

There has been a big pull factor, which was the change by the government in its border protection regime in 2008. The government refuse to recognise this. They know that they have made an error; however, they are not addressing the genuine mistake that they have made. That has led to an additional nearly 100 boats arriving since that time. This year we have seen a record number of arrivals. This week alone I think we have seen two boats—it is hard to keep up with how many are actually arriving on our northern shores through the wet season, which is highly unusual.

Until the government can bring themselves to recognise that they have made a fundamental error in this policy issue, we will continue to see the massive number of arrivals occurring in the northern waters of Australia. That is putting additional pressure on our Customs service and defence services and it is a big problem for our border protection regime. I note in this bill the government are seeking to address some of the concerns in relation to security and they are right to do so. We need to protect our borders. We need to have a well-looked after system and ensure that there is a solid system of entry into our country.

We are very generous in the number of people that we take into Australia and we should be. I support that. I do not support a reduction in the humanitarian intake; I think we have a very proud record as a country. As you know, Mr Deputy Speaker Georganas, being a son of migrants, we have a very proud record in Australia of taking in people from other parts of the world whether for economic opportunities or because they are fleeing situations which have become very difficult for them in their home countries. But we need to ensure that it is done in a well-managed fashion, and the problem with softening the border protection laws in 2008 has been that it is putting pressure on the management of this system.

When the member for Braddon said that there are these accusations about there being no queue—‘Where’s the queue?’ I think he said, and then he said there are something like 43 million people in refugee camps around the world—that is exactly right; there is a queue. There is an application process. The department of immigration goes through a very detailed assessment of people to ensure that we are keeping ourselves secure, which of course is a major responsibility of people in this place, at the same time as taking in very high numbers of refugees—I think it is the second largest humanitarian intake of any country in the world, just behind Canada. We do do our bit. There is an argument about whether we could do more, but we certainly do do our bit.

However, what we say on this side of the House is that you cannot undermine your migration intake by softening your border protection laws, because in the Australian community’s eyes it will question the value of the whole process of taking humanitarian refugees. That is a genuine problem that we have. As illegal arrivals increase, the community becomes increasingly concerned about the way that we are managing this system. I think they are right to be concerned, because the government has made a big mistake and it is high time they recognised that mistake. I think it is quite clear that we have a very proud record on this side. There was a problem in 2001 and the former government addressed that problem; the boats stopped coming. There was no problem in 2008, but the Prime Minister created a problem and the boats started coming again. That is the story of the border protection regime in Australia over the last 10 years. The coalition addressed the problem; the Labor Party created a problem. Unfortunately, until the Prime Minister is able to stop talking and start taking some action, we will continue to see the large number of boats arriving in our northern waters.

It is unfortunate that this debate descends into personal attacks and gutter politics. Unfortunately, we have seen far too much of that in this debate so far. In addition to the softening of the border protection laws in 2008, the other mistake the Labor Party have made in government was to cut some of the Customs vessel inspections. They cut $58.1 million from the Australian Customs and Border Protection Service air and sea cargo inspection services in the 2009-2010 budget even though they promised in the election that they would not do so—in fact, they said they would increase it. The breakdown of the cuts is $17.1 million over four years cut from the risk based air cargo inspections, $8.6 million over four years cut from the risk based approach to first port boarding inspection program and $32.4 million cut from the risk based sea cargo inspections. The effect of the cuts is that, of Australia’s 70 major ports, 1,300 local port workers and millions of shipping containers, only five to 10 per cent are checked. The decision to cut vital funds in areas of customs will put strain on the staff. They have already been stretched, and this will inevitably lead to more illicit drugs, weapons and biosecurity threats slipping through our borders. Our front-line agency has had major cuts to its budget just at a time when it has increasing pressure put on it through measures introduced by this government’s softening of the border protection laws.

I find it interesting that the Prime Minister just a few weeks ago was talking very loudly about ensuring that our passport system was protected and secure when there were stories about the illegal use of Australian passports. We should be making sure that our passports are used appropriately, but he equally seems to be quite comfortable with a huge increase in illegal arrivals in the northern parts of our country. This is an emotive debate. It is at times a difficult debate for the parliament. However, we need to handle it in a mature fashion. We need to be able to put our different perspectives. We on this side of the House put the perspective that the Labor Party in government has softened what were very effective laws. Those on the other side argue that it was not their decision and was not because of their changes; it has been purely push factors. I think there is clearly an uncomfortable position for those on the other side who can see this increase in the number of people coming. They see the correlation with the decision, but their Prime Minister refuses to take any action on it. It is high time he reconsiders this position. It is high time some of those opposite who are engaging in the gutter politics we saw from the member for Parramatta yesterday stop doing so and have a sensible and well-thought-through debate in this parliament.

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