Russell Matheson (Macarthur, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Immigration. Will the minister outline the latest steps the government has taken with regard to working with the government of Sri Lanka to deny people smugglers the opportunity to market their product to potential illegal immigrants coming to Australia?

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

I thank the member for McArthur for his question. As a member representing Western Sydney, he will be pleased to be able to be reporting back to his constituents that since Operation Sovereign Borders began, there has been a 75 per cent decline in illegal arrivals by boat to Australia. I know that will be of keen interest to the people who elected a Liberal-National government to achieve those sorts of results.

Sri Lanka is a critical partner in our efforts to ensure that we put paid to the people smuggling trade. They have been a consistent supporter, not only for this government, but of previous governments as well. The support that went back in return for the Sri Lankan government from previous governments has, frankly, not measured up to the opportunity that was there to realise the full potential. Working with the Prime Minister and others, I was pleased to recommend that two Bay-class vessels that are a part of the border protection fleet—Customs vessels—should be gifted to the Sri Lankan government, and the Prime Minister was in Sri Lanka on the weekend to make that announcement. That announcement of gifting actual patrol boats to be actively engaged in patrols to stop people coming to Australia illegally by boat is the sort of cooperation and assistance that I know the Sri Lankan government was seeking.

I was there in January with the now Minister for Foreign Affairs and the now Minister for Justice, who will recall also that long-range patrol assets were critical in their area of weakness that needed to be filled to ensure that they would have that capability. We are pleased to provide it. I am also pleased to report that the practice of screen-in, screen-out for Sri Lankan arrivals has achieved new levels of results under this government. Under the previous government, one in six were screened out this year—one in six. There has been one vessel with Sri Lankans on board that has turned up under this government. It had 79 passengers, and all 79 have been returned to Sri Lanka.

I was also asked about what other measures are being taken in this area. We are also fulfilling our promise to ensure that the 33,000 people who turned up on the previous government's watch and who came for a permanent visa will not get one. Those opposite wanted to ensure—and still want to ensure, it would seem—that they get what the people smugglers sought to give them and that they paid for, because they are frustrating the Senate and deferring motions regarding our re-introduction of temporary protection visas. It is not bad enough that the opposition wants to run a campaign for the people smugglers' right to know, now they want us to fulfil the promise by ensuring that they got the permanent protection visas that that government wanted to give them previously, and this government never will.