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

That is right. Do you know how many children, Mr Deputy Speaker, were in detention when I was elected in 2013? Almost 2,000. Labor have learnt nothing in the last few years after their abysmal record of six years in government. Clearly, our strong border protection policies have sent a message to people smugglers that life in Australia is not a commodity to be sold at a profit to the desperate and vulnerable. Illegal immigration, of course, is a worldwide problem. In 2016, we are seeing the worst of this in Europe, and I believe it was a big factor in the recent Brexit vote and in today's US election. Our border protection policies have been so successful that other countries, including in Europe and Great Britain, are looking to us, saying: 'What have you done? How did you implement policies that are working so well? We need to do the same here.'

However, as the Minister for Immigration and Border Protection, Peter Dutton, the member for Dickson, said today, we cannot afford to become complacent. Now is not the time to send a message to the people smugglers and to the Australian people that the Australian government will go soft on this issue or that we are complacent on this issue.

The bill before the House today will amend the Migration Act to further strengthen Australia's migration border-protection arrangements. The purpose is to reinforce the government's longstanding policy that people who travel here illegally by boat will never be settled in Australia. Of course, we know that this policy position is longstanding. The coalition government have had this policy position since around 2000. Do you remember the Tampa in 2001 when the Howard government was in office? It is now almost 2017 and we have not changed. The Labor Party, on the other hand, are all over the place—the most wishy-washy government and opposition ever who caused a major disaster in their six years of government.

Ms Collins interjecting—

The member for Franklin was there as part of that government. She was one of the members who weakened TPVs and that weakened everything—for example, the Pacific solution, that Howard had in place. I would not be interjecting if I was her.

There are many differences between the coalition government and Labor. While the coalition acts in the best interests of the Australian people, Labor does not. They do not act in the best interests of the Australian people on this issue relating to illegal maritime arrivals. They are too interested in what everyone else thinks. That is why, from what the members opposite have said today, they do not want to support the bill. We need to look at their record over their time in government. Some 50,000 illegal maritime arrivals came on over 800 boats. As I said before, some 8,000 children came through detention. The Labor government reopened 17 detention centres and two offshore detention centres in Nauru and in PNG. We know that there were at least 1,200 deaths at sea and an $11 billion blowout in border protection policies.

Mr Bill Shorten, the Leader of the Opposition, talks about people smuggling and the need for resettlement as though he and Labor have no responsibility in the facts and figures that I have just read out and they have no responsibility for offshore processing and detention. But they have absolute responsibility. Let's not forget that in May 2008 the Rudd government announced that it would abolish the system of temporary protection—out of the blue—when previously former Prime Minister Rudd had said they would not do that and they were on a unity ticket with us. But in May 2008 they abolished the temporary protection system.

The TPV system was formally ended by amendments to the migration regulations on 9 August 2008 and those Labor members elected in 2007, including the current shadow minister, said nothing. They just supported it and let it go through, and we know what happened afterwards. Now it seems, after listening to the shadow minister today and other members opposite, they have learnt nothing in that time—absolutely nothing.

What are their excuses for not supporting this important amendment that will send the strongest of signals that our borders are secure? The Leader of the Opposition spoke the other day about genuine refugees and said that all the people coming by boat were genuine. Now, we now that that is not the case. There are two people in my electorate alone who are men from Iran. One is a young guy who is about 27 years of age who came by boat before 2013—so he would not be affected by this policy. He is currently on a TPV in the Australian community. He has just moved into a regional area. I spoke to Amid and said: 'Mate, what was the issue?' He said he was or was about to be persecuted in Iran because of his political beliefs. I said, 'Okay, what did you do from there?' He went to neighbouring countries—I think it was Egypt—and lived there for 12 months and then flew to Indonesia and lived there for another 12 or 18 months. Then, eventually, he paid around $10,000 to come to Australia by boat. I said to him, 'Were you being persecuted when you were in Indonesia and Egypt?' He said, 'No, I wasn't.' He is a nice young guy, but he said he was not being persecuted. I said, 'Why did you then illegally pay a people smuggler to come to Australia by boat?' He said, 'Look, I just wanted to come.'

And I cannot blame him. Of course people want to come to Australia because we have the greatest country in the world. I understand that. But I said to him: 'Amid, that is the illegal part mate. You cannot actually pay a people smuggler. It is against the law to pay a people smuggler to come to Australia by boat.' I do not blame him for wanting to come, but 1,200 of his fellow travellers drowned at sea because of Labor's changes. We must send a signal that this was—

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