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

I note the interjections opposite. What we are seeing from the Leader of the Opposition is a dance. He is dancing around it. He will not face up to the behaviour of his own shadow minister for defence. As the Assistant Minister for Defence said earlier, he opened his account as the shadow minister for defence with a sledge against one of our strongest and most able and most distinguished serving officers in our military.

Other matters have been raised in this debate by the Leader of the Opposition. I want to correct the record for their benefit, because they seem to not understand how Operation Sovereign Borders operates and how it works. It brings together 15 agencies which the commander of the Joint Agency Task Force operates on a daily basis. They have a single-minded task, and that is to stop the boats—and they are stopping the boats. Those policies are working. General Campbell's leadership is proving to be a key ingredient in that success. It only makes me wonder: why didn't the previous government ask someone like General Campbell to go and fix their mess? That is what this government did. This government put someone in who had the ability to take the policies of this government and implement them and get the results the Australian people were crying out for, because after almost 1,200 deaths it demanded the sort of action and the sort of leadership for the policies and their implementation that General Campbell is putting in place.

I note particularly that the opposition takes issue with the policy regarding information and the handling of sensitive information in relation to Operation Sovereign Borders. I said before the last election that we would leave that matter of how information on matters of operations was to be addressed in the public domain to the commander of the JATF, and that is exactly what we did. Every time those opposite have criticised the way information is being handled in terms of maritime operations they are actually criticising the measures put in place by the commander of the JATF, because that is the body and that is the commander who has advised me on those policies.

I am not surprised that the Leader of the Opposition has not risen to the member for Denison's challenge here today, because he wishes to continue the attacks and undermining of this government and its policies and now that attack has shamefully gone at the hands of Senator Conroy to attacking one of the most distinguished men ever to pull on a uniform for this country.

Mr Shorten interjecting—

The Leader of the Opposition asks me to sit down. I will not be sitting down, Leader of the Opposition; I will be standing up for General Campbell, and you should be ashamed of yourself.

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