Natasha Griggs (Solomon, Country Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Immigration and Border Protection. Will the minister please inform the House how the investment outlined in the defence white paper will contribute to border security and continue to put people smugglers out of business?

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

I sincerely thank the honourable member for her question. She is a great champion for Defence families and for the industry in the Northern Territory and in Darwin in particular. She works very hard to make sure that there is further investment in the Northern Territory.

I am very pleased and very proud to be part of a government that has today announced $30 billion to defence over the next decade. Last week I was in Washington with the Attorney-General where we met with our counterparts to talk about national security issues and also in relation to immigration and border protection issues. It is, as my colleagues have pointed out earlier in question time, absolutely the first responsibility of any government to make sure that we can protect our nation, our people and our borders. The success that we have had under Operation Sovereign Borders, the fact that we have been able to turn Labor's policy of 1,200 people drowning at sea into not one drowning at sea and the fact that we have been able to turn 800 boats arriving under Labor's time to no boats, effectively, under our time means we have been able to remove people from detention. I can say to the House that we would not have been able to achieve this success without the support of the Australian Defence Force.

In the white paper there is an announcement of 12 new offshore patrol vessels that will be home ported in Darwin, in the member for Solomon's electorate. In fact, over the decade, there will be $8.2 billion spent upgrading defence facilities in the Northern Territory. People in the Northern Territory know that that will only be delivered under this government. When they go to the next election and they are voting for the member for Solomon they will know that they are voting for somebody who is going to deliver $8 billion of investment into their local economy as opposed to nothing from the Labor Party.

In my home state of Queensland, in this white paper we have been able to promise $3.5 billion in defence facility upgrades over the decade to 2025-26. It includes additional facilities in Cairns and elsewhere, but it also includes new offshore patrol vessels, as I mentioned before, which are going to be a great boost to the Northern Australia. The member for Leichhardt has championed this cause for a long period of time. The member for Herbert will be very proud of the fact that we invest more money into Gallipoli Barracks, and the member for Capricornia will be very proud of the fact that we put more money into Shoalwater Bay.

This government takes the security of this nation very seriously. Labor promised a lot when it came to all sorts of policy areas, including defence and border protection. In the end, they delivered nothing. This government has promised a funded policy out to 2025-26 which will secure our borders and which will deliver safety to the Australian people.