Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Minister for Immigration and Border Protection) Share this | Hansard source

There could be nothing more relevant in terms of the answer to the member's question that under this government we are not giving permanent visas to people who come the wrong way to Australia. So those who come the right way to Australia can expect the generous spirit and heart of the Australian people in the way we administer this program. What we have changed is we have increased the size of the special humanitarian program which under their government reduced to just 500 people. Under the Howard government it ran at an average of 5,000 a year. There are many victims of the previous government's policies and failures on border protection. We know of the deaths, we know of the cost to the budget, but there are those people who waited in camps like Nazifeh for decades while that government over the last six years handed out protection visas to people who came illegally by boat. And they still want to do it in the Senate—they still want to honour the people smugglers' promise because is that what they believe in.

See this speech in context