Nola Marino (Forrest, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Immigration and Border Protection. What benefits are there in the budget for all Australians as a result of the government's success in stopping people-smuggling ventures?

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

I thank the member for her question. There are three big dividends that come to the budget as a result of the coalition's stronger border protection policies: an economic dividend, a humanitarian dividend and a reform dividend. There is a $2.5 billion boat-stopping dividend in this budget. And there is a bonus of $280 million in savings from our 'closing the detention centre revolution'—closing the centres that those opposite opened when their border policies failed because they were not up to the job. Also, there is a $300 million contribution to the budget as a result of a better-put-together immigration program, with a greater focus on skills, a greater focus on people who come the right way to Australia, and the removal of incentives for those who come the wrong way. The previous government created 4,000 places for family reunions for people who had come to Australia illegally by boat. We have removed those places, and it has saved the budget $260 million.

There is a humanitarian dividend, as well, beyond the fact of stopping the deaths at sea, which is this: 20,000 places have been restored to the refugee and humanitarian program this year and over the next four years, because we have freed them up in the special humanitarian program. Those places otherwise would have gone to those who had come to Australia illegally by boat.

In addition to that, there is a reform dividend in this budget through reversing the $700 million in cuts over the forward estimates to the border agencies that occurred over the previous six years under the previous government. Over the next six years we will restore that with over $700 million invested in our border agencies, including the establishment of the Australian Border Force, which brings together the combined efforts, experience and talent of our customs and immigration officers to provide one single force on our borders to pick up from Operation Sovereign Borders, which has ensured that for the past 20 weeks, or 146 days, there has not been a single successful maritime people-smuggling venture to this country. We said that we would stop the boats with our policies. Those opposite derided it and said it could not be done, but it is happening. That is what is happening.

In the budget last night we said, through the Treasurer, that we will repair the budget. With the budget handed down by the Treasurer that is what we are going to do. This is a government that says what it is going to do and then gets on and does it.