Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Immigration and Citizenship) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

As the House adjourns today, and as members from the government file out to the caucus to determine where they may now go in terms of their failed border protection policy that they did not have the courage to bring into this House today, I think we all reflect on the absolute mess that the government have created of asylum policy and border protection policy in this country. As they file away to their government room to sit there and work out where to go next, the question that they have always had before them is: where could they ever go at all?

This is the government that just over a year ago ditched its former Prime Minister and put in a new Prime Minister who said boldly that Labor had 'lost its way'. What we have seen in this place today is that not only has Labor not found its way but it has lost its compass and has no hope of finding its way at all. This is incredibly disturbing because this is a very significant issue. This is an issue that this Prime Minister staked her prime ministership upon. And after failure and failure and failure, this Prime Minister now scurries out of this House for the second time on a Thursday afternoon when the Migration Act amendments were to be considered in this place.

Last time we were in this place on a Thursday a few weeks ago, the same thing happened: the government had the opportunity to have a vote and they scurried away. On this occasion they have the same opportunity and they have scurried away. They have collapsed their tent because their policy has collapsed and now they sit huddled under a blanket in the government party room just looking at each other and going: 'What next?' And if it is anything like what has gone before, the Australian people can be very concerned because what has gone before has been an abysmal failure. It has been cost, it has been chaos and it has been tragedy under this government's failed border protection policies.

The Prime Minister wanted to take the name of every single member who sits in this House and record how they voted on the Migration Act amendments. No names will be recorded today. All the names are there to be recorded on this matter. All said they wanted to have their names recorded. They are all huddled in the government party room, just sitting around looking at one another saying, 'How did we get here?' I will tell you how they got here, Mr Speaker. They got here because when this government was elected around four years ago it was egged on to abolish the proven and successful policies of the Howard government. That is what happened. They were egged on to do that and they thought they had got themselves into a position where they could right the wrongs of the Howard government's policies. In so doing they have brought on more than their worst nightmare.

I think it is important that we understand in this place that, as culpable as the current Prime Minister is—who just over a year ago took on the mantle of solving this problem and has only made it worse—we must acknowledge that it was the former Prime Minister that set this whole ball rolling. That was a Prime Minister who likes to parade himself around this place and all around the country, trailing his coat in defiance of his own leader, as the new Lazarus of Australian politics. He is no new Lazarus of Australian politics; he is the Freddy Krueger of Australian politics. And if he returns to the prime ministership the nightmare will continue with the Freddy Krueger of Australian politics, who is the former Prime Minister—a nightmare that just rolled into another nightmare when the current Prime Minister took over the reins and was unable to get to a position of remedying any of the ills of the former Prime Minister. So it does not matter who is in charge of Labor. It does not matter how often you shuffle the Labor deck, you always pull out a Joker.

We on this side of the House are ready to vote on the Migration Act amendment bill. We are ready to have our names recorded for good policy, not bad policy; for proven policy, not failed policy. We are here to have our names recorded to ensure that the protections that existed in the Migration Act are preserved and the offshore processing that we successfully put in place as a government can be done again. We know that we will be able to do that regardless of what happens with this bill.

The government today sit in shambles, huddled together in their government party room, hiding from this chamber, hiding from the Australian people. Yesterday they were in a fit of self-congratulation. Today they are in a fit of despair because they have not only lost their way, they will never find it. (Time expired)