Luke Howarth (Petrie, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

You do not have to worry about it. You were not here at the time. I am not blaming you. I am blaming members elected in 2007, Mr Conroy.

The other thing Bill Shorten, the Leader of the Opposition, said is that he is worried that the citizens of the US and Canada may face a ban. I spoke on this yesterday in a 90 second statement. I said, 'Bill, you don't represent the people of the US or Canada. You don't represent those people. You actually represent Australians in your electorate.' He is opposition leader and obviously he wants to be Prime Minister, but he has to learn that he represents Australians and that he has to look after Australians. He is not here to look after the interests of US or Canadian citizens. He is totally mixed up. I know he could not help himself intervening in this current US election by making some of the disgraceful comments he had made in relation to the Republican candidate who, in a few hours time from now, may well be the next US President. I am sure his remarks will come back to bite him. He has to learn that he is here to represent the Australian people.

The bill will prevent unauthorised maritime arrivals who are at least 18 years of age and who were taken to a regional processing country after 19 July 2013 from making a valid application for an Australian visa. The amendments will also apply to transitionary persons who were at least 18 years of age and who were taken to a regional processing country after the date. The amendments will include ministerial discretion, where the minister will be able to permit a member of a class of people within the designated regional processing cohort to make a valid application for a visa if the minister thinks it is in the public interest to do so. This is important because there are sometimes cases that are so important that it is not possible to assess them under a standard piece of legislation.

When the shadow minister spoke on this all he could do was criticise the current minister. He just went to town on him as though that was important. Given that he was elected in 2007 and was responsible for much of the chaos, I just found it outrageous. The current minister has a strong record. He has a very strong record. I am sure that future ministers from whatever government could make the right decision when it comes to ministerial intervention in these matters.

The minister made some contributions on this bill when he presented it to the House. He said notwithstanding the success of Operation Sovereign Borders people smugglers will continue to take advantage of vulnerable people by trying to convince them to get on boats for Australia and to risk their lives at sea. This bill will further undercut the people smugglers' business model. It will communicate unequivocally to the 14,000 people currently waiting in Indonesia to board a people-smuggling boat that they will never settle in Australia. The bill will communicate to illegal maritime arrivals on regional processing countries that they will never settle permanently in Australia, no matter what advocates or others may tell them. That is an important point—to stop people languishing on offshore detention centres set up by Labor for so long because some advocates might say, 'Just wait it out. The government will change. They'll weaken their border protection policies and you will be allowed in.' This will send the strongest of messages that the Australian government is serious about protecting our borders and maintaining our sovereignty and the interests of Australian people.

I know for a fact that the majority of people in my electorate of Petrie want to see our borders protected. And I think those opposite and, perhaps, some of the crossbench senators would also know that, in their states and in their seats, support for this measure is important. In stark contrast to Labor, the federal coalition government has stopped the boats, it has closed 17 detention centres, it has moved thousands of children out of detention and it has been able, as a result, to increase our refugee intake, including recently for 12,000 additional Syrians. People are absolutely in fear of their life because of ISIL at the moment in Syria and Iraq—ISIL is slaughtering these people on a daily basis. Why? Because they are Christians or something. Unbelievable! Now, our refugee intake will enable them in instead of IMAs. This is a very important bill to make sure that the message is sent clearly.

I thank the Minister for Immigration and Border Protection for his work on this bill. The coalition will get on with the job. I commend the bill to the House.

See this speech in context