Richard Marles (Corio, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Immigration and Border Protection) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Foreign Affairs. Does the Minister regret denying categorically that the government has made cash payments to criminal people smugglers to smuggle asylum seekers back to Indonesia?

Ms Julie Bishop (Curtin, Liberal Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In answer to the member's question: I do not do regrets.

Karen McNamara (Dobell, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Immigration and Border Protection.

Mr Watts interjecting—

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

The member for Gellibrand will put his prop away.

Karen McNamara (Dobell, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Will the Minister update the House on the importance of the government's turn-back policy in ending the people smuggling trade and securing the nation's borders? What are the consequences of an inconsistent approach to this issue?

Peter Dutton (Dickson, Liberal Party, Minister for Immigration and Border Protection) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the honourable member for Dobell because on behalf of her constituents she is in here in this parliament every day, fighting on their behalf, and she strongly supports the government's work in relation to Operation Sovereign Borders.

As we have said before and as the Australian recognise, when Labor were in government over 50,000 people on 800 boats arrived into our country and Labor completely and utterly lost control of our borders. One of the main reasons that we have been so successful is that we have been able to turn back boats where it is safe to do so. We have made that point repeatedly because it is an integral part of the success we have been able to achieve under Operation Sovereign Borders.

When Kevin Rudd came into government in 2007, there were only four people in detention, including no children.

Ms Parke interjecting—

I am coming to the member for Fremantle in just a moment. There were four people and no children. When Labor were in government, they turned that into a situation where almost 2,000 children were in detention, which was a shameful outcome. But, in addition to that, 1,200 people drowned at sea. For many years, Labor leaders—this Leader of the Opposition and his predecessors—have said before elections, hand on heart: 'We will adopt turn-backs. We will stop the boats.' When they get into government, they abandon every attempt to stop the boats. Why? Because they are dictated to by people like the member for Sydney.

I see a media report today which says, 'Labor to turn back boats.' I looked at the words that Bill Shorten, the Leader of the Opposition, is alleged to have said. You know, there is an eerie parallel to be drawn with similar words that Kevin Rudd said in 2007. Kevin Rudd said that he would stop boats, that the Labor government would turn back boats where it was safe to do so—and people actually believed him. But the irony is now that Kevin Rudd was a more trustworthy person than Bill Shorten. That is how history now turns out. How ironic it is that the Leader of the Opposition sits here looking befuddled on a regular basis about what to do with boats. He has the national conference coming up and he says that he is going to stare down the Left, including members opposite, including the member for Fremantle.

I am going to come to some quotes in a number of questions on this topic, because it is a very important topic in the run-up to the next election. If the Labor Party say before the election that they are going to adopt the coalition's successful turn-back policy, do not believe a word that they say. Labor presided over a complete mess when it came to border protection, and, as all Australians know, if you cannot control your borders, you cannot control national security. That is the problem with this Leader of the Opposition.