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

Thank you for the opportunity to be here in the Federation Chamber. I want to say thank you to other colleagues, including the shadow minister, here today. There are a number of issues that have been raised. To go to the first directly: it is true that the Prime Minister and I had a very productive trip to the United States only a few weeks ago. There, we were able to talk about the success that Australia had enjoyed over the course of the last several years in stopping deaths at sea.

One of the proudest achievements of this government is that we have been able to clean up a mess of Labor's making: 50,000 people arrived in 800 boats. Labor has apologised for that, and we welcome that apology, but it seems that they have not learned from the lesson, because their policy, ultimately, has not changed. If they were elected tomorrow, the difficulty for Labor is that the boats would recommence, because the people smugglers can sniff out a weak Labor leader 10,000 miles away. They did it with Rudd, they did it with Gillard and they are doing it again with Mr Shorten.

The poisoned chalice has been handed to the member for Blair. Mr Neumann presides, along with the Leader of the Opposition, over an opposition which is squarely divided when it comes to this important issue. We can go through each of the contributions of members on the backbench who would add to the failure which they would again preside over, if they were to come back into government. It is a very important point to make because, when we went the United States, we were able to talk about the successes—and there are many European nations who have a lot of interest in the success that Australia has been able to achieve. My department has worked with some of those agencies and some of those countries to work through not just the success that we have had in Operation Sovereign Borders but also the intelligence picture that sits beneath that.

There are 16 agencies that are involved in Operation Sovereign Borders, and they work together and they work well. We have diplomatic engagement with a number of countries, which has resulted in significant success. The point of that is that we have had, as part of that success, interaction with countries, including the United States. It is why we took a decision to support the United States in relation to the settlement of a limited number of people under the program that the honourable member opposite spoke of in his contribution.

To answer his question directly, I was advised of and approved the arrangement in August of this year. It was well thought through because, in the end, regardless of what referrals are made to us by the United Nations through the UNHCR process or any other process in terms of the humanitarian and refugee program, we will conduct our own health checks and our own security and intelligence checks in relation to individuals before people arrive in this country.

It is the case that, in July of this year, the government of Costa Rica announced that it had agreed to enter into a protection transfer arrangement, a PTA, with the UNHCR and IOM—both very important partners for our country. They wanted to help address a regional migration challenge. It is the case that the US, in coordination with the UNHCR and IOM, committed to prescreening protection applicants from the region. Those applicants determined to be most in need will be transferred from Costa Rica for processing. They include refugees from Central America who are seeking international protection from kidnappings, human trafficking, family violence and targeted killings against their communities by known gangs.

We have received a lot of assistance from the United States—particularly, I might say, and it is worth noting, in relation to the intake of refugees from Syria. We have relied necessarily on the United States and that partnership to deal with the security checks that we asked to be undertaken so that we did not end up with the sorts of problems that we have seen in Europe. We have scrutinised every application to the best of our ability. We have done that with the support of the United States and with the support of our Five Eyes partners. We have been able to go through a process which, I think, has resulted in a better intake in terms of the Syrian refugees.

For all of these reasons, because we have a very close working relationship with IOM and with the UNHCR, we did take a decision in relation to the Costa Rica scenario—and it is within the existing program, so there is no additional cost—that I think would enjoy bipartisan support. There is no secret to the process, there is no secret to the detail. Costa Rica, the United States and Australia have been very transparent about the process, and it was an important summit that President Obama put together. Prime Minister Turnbull was able to talk about the success in not only stopping boats but also bringing in a record number of refugees. I am happy to add to that, if necessary.

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