Peter Dutton (Dickson, Liberal Party, Minister for Immigration and Border Protection) Share this | Hansard source

In 14 years, the honourable member has yet again made another memorable contribution. There have been many over that period of time that I can recall, particularly in relation to health, and she has again excelled herself tonight—perhaps even peaked. Well done.

The point that I would make in relation to Labor's claims here is that this government—as I have pointed out publicly and as I pointed out in my earlier response—had a mess to clean up. Operation Sovereign Borders has been a success for a number of reasons, because we have been able to maintain operational integrity. We have been able to work with people of the quality of Lieutenant General Angus Campbell and, now, Major General Bottrell, with a very professional team beneath them. The work that Admiral Mike Noonan and others do within the command is world-class.

These are people who dedicate themselves to border protection and to the security of our nation, and they should be honoured. They lead a team of people within Operation Sovereign Borders, and any suggestion that they act outside of the law is an affront to them as much as it is to me. I believe very strongly that Labor, in their whispering campaign—in the most appalling press conference today that I have ever seen the Leader of the Opposition take part in—and in the fact that they did not ask a single question about this in question time today, show that they still do not grasp what is required under Operation Sovereign Borders.

The reason all of that is important is that, as the member for Cowan rightly points out, because we have been able to resurrect some integrity within the program, because we have been able to address the fact that the people smugglers were financed to the tune of over half a billion dollars by Labor when they were in government, the fact that we have broken the business model of these people smugglers, the fact that each day we continue through Operation Sovereign Borders to stare this threat down—the fact that we can do all of that is exactly the reason that we can deliver support through other programs, including to people within the electorate of Cowan.

I know a lot about the member for Cowan. He has served his country with great distinction. He has served his country not only in uniform but in this place as well. He reflects the aspirations within his own community. He provides an amazing amount of sympathy and connection with those people who have been able to change their lives forever, as he quite aptly put before, in terms of the life journey that they have embarked upon out of camps and into parts of Western Australia to create a new life. That is something our country should be incredibly proud of, but we do not have that human dividend if we allow Labor's dysfunction to return. We will do whatever it takes within the law and our obligations to international treaties to make sure that the people smugglers stay out of business. I can advise this parliament and the Australian people that all of the advice that I have is that these people are trying their best to restart their business and they are rubbing their hands together at the prospect of a Shorten-led government. We will not allow that to happen.

We will not allow the people smugglers to recommence their terrible trade, because under Labor 1,200 people drowned at sea. We have been able under this humanitarian program to increase the places by 2018-19 out to 18,750, and it means that we can get the human dividend that the member for Cowan so appropriately spoke to before.

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