Mal Brough (Fisher, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Immigration and Border Protection. Will the minister advise the House how many successful people-smuggling ventures have arrived in Australia this year and what has contributed to that outcome? Minister, could you explain the impact on the budget because of the outcomes the government's measures to control our borders have achieved?

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

I thank the member for Fisher for his question. He has served on the government benches of two governments now that have been responsible for successful border protection policies. I can advise him that there have been no successful ventures this year—none at all over the first five months of this year. That is in stark contrast to the first five months of last year, where I can inform the member there were 156 such ventures, more than a venture day and an average of over 2,000 people arriving every month and over 10,000 over that period. The saving to the budget is $2½ billion.

Mr Marles interjecting—

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Corio will desist!

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

When I was driving into Parliament House today, there was a car in front of me that had a bumper sticker on the back that said: 'Don't blame me. I voted Labor.' I am not going to blame Labor for these results. They have got absolutely nothing to do with them. We are not going to blame the Labor Party and those who supported the Labor Party for the border successes that this government have been able to achieve. And there are a range of other things that I am not going to blame the Labor Party for.

I am not going to blame them for cutting a billion dollars in regulatory costs off business. The Prime Minister and the member for Kooyong are achieving that. I am not going to blame Labor for attacking Labor's debt and deficit disaster. The Treasurer and the Minister for Finance are doing that. I am not going to blame the Labor Party for getting Sydney's second airport underway and spending $2½ billion on infrastructure in Western Sydney. The Minister for Infrastructure is doing that. I am not going to blame the Labor Party for groundbreaking education reforms for higher education. That is being done by the Minister for Education. I am not going to blame the Labor Party for approving more than $500 billion—that is half a trillion dollars—in project approvals, because that is being done by the Minister for Education. I am not going to blame those opposite for two new trade agreements with Korea and Japan, because that is being done by the Minister for Trade. I am not going to blame those opposite for fixing the mess on the NBN disaster, because that is being done by the Minister for Communications. I am certainly not going to blame those opposite for the job we have done on stopping the boats, because that is as a result of the policies of those on this side of the House.

We know their messes when we see them and we get about the job in government of fixing them. It is what the Nationals and the Liberals do. We fix Labor's messes. We are very good at it. We have done it many times before. The Australian people know that when you elect a Liberal-National government, we fix up Labor's messes.