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

I thank the member for Eden-Monaro for his question, because he understands the importance of a well-run migration program that is focused on skills to grow the Australian economy and to create jobs for Australians. What we need to do to ensure this is true is we need to have integrity in the program. To have integrity in the program, it is not enough just to have laws; you have to be prepared to enforce those laws. The people of Australia know that, when it comes to enforcing our immigration laws and our laws on our border, this government has demonstrated that it has what it takes to enforce our laws on the borders. They know that we believe in an immigration program that has integrity and that we believe in borders having integrity.

The people smugglers know it too—not by what we have said but what we have done. Due to what we have done through Operation Sovereign Borders, there have been more than six months since there has been a successful people smuggling venture to this country. That speaks of the government's resolve to do what is necessary on our borders and to enforce our immigration laws to ensure there is integrity to protect this important program for our nation.

But stopping the boats is just the start for this government; we are just getting warmed up. When it comes to the threats that are on our border—and there are many—we will show the same resolve, application and leadership in dealing with the threat that terrorist fighters pose to this country and their attempts to radicalise people in our community who would cause a threat to this country. And they know that we will act on the integrity of our immigration program to deal with outlaw motorcycle gangs as well. This is the commitment of this government.

But we will also act to deal with the threat of those who would seek to rort our migration laws in the workplace. In the first nine months of our government there has been a one-third increase in the level of field inspections to find illegal workers in this country—a one-third increase on our watch. There has been a 20 per cent increase in the location of illegal workers under our enforcement measures and a 190 per cent increase when it comes to warnings. The member for Eden-Monaro and the member for Gilmore will know that recently, in Operation Lever, from Ulladulla to Nowra and from Bega to Merimbula, there were 12 workers identified in cafes and other places as part of those programs.

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