Stuart Robert (Fadden, Liberal Party, Minister for Human Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Will the Prime Minister update the House on the coalition government's continued strong approach to national security and border protection?

Malcolm Turnbull (Wentworth, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the honourable member for his question and I acknowledge his service to Australia in Australia's uniform, in Australia's armed forces, keeping Australia safe. There is no greater responsibility for a Prime Minister and a government than to keep Australians safe, secure and free. We pursue the security of Australians and our interests at home and abroad by being clear-eyed when it comes to the challenges we face. This weekend I will travel with the Minister for Immigration and Border Protection to the United States for meetings in New York with world leaders to discuss the security and humanitarian challenges posed by the uncontrolled movement of approximately 65 million people who are forcibly displaced around the world—many from the Syrian conflict.

The urgent need to confront this issue has been brought home by the perfect storm confronting Europe: failed integration, returned foreign fighters, porous borders and an intelligence apparatus struggling to keep pace with the scope and breadth of the threat. Just this week in Germany, as the foreign minister reminded us earlier this week, three terrorists suspected of being part of an ISIL sleeper cell responsible for the Paris attacks that killed 130 people were arrested.

I want to acknowledge on behalf of all members of the coalition, and I believe on behalf of all Australians, the debt we owe to the member for Warringah for the leadership he showed on coming into office as Prime Minister, in working to galvanise the strongest possible international response to the evolving threat of Daesh in the Middle East and beyond, and—every bit as critical—for the strength of purpose he brought to the task of restoring the integrity of our borders. The disastrous border policies of the Rudd-Gillard years weakened our national security dramatically. I remember standing at the dispatch box opposite, begging then Prime Minister Rudd not to weaken our border protection laws. He persisted, and what we saw was a tragedy: 50,000 arrivals, 800 unauthorised boats and, most tragically of all, 1,200 men, women and children drowned at sea. Under the policies of our government—and I acknowledge here the extraordinary contributions of leadership, grit and determination of the member for Cook, ably succeeded by the member for Dickson—we stopped the boats and we stopped the deaths at sea. That would never have happened had it not been for the election of the Abbott government in 2013. Regaining control of our borders enables us to have one of the most generous humanitarian programs in the world. We are only able to do that—we are only able to maintain public support for it—because we control our borders. Labor failed. We restored our borders. It is one of the greatest achievements of the coalition government to restore the integrity of Australia's sovereign borders. (Time expired)

Dr Aly interjecting—

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Cowan will cease interjecting.