Ross Vasta (Bonner, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Immigration and Border Protection. Will the minister update the House on action the government is taking to strengthen Australia's national security arrangements? Why are reforms necessary to combat new and evolving threats?

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

I thank the honourable member for his question and thank him very much for the work he does in his local community, particularly around working with groups that are determined to see crime dealt with in his local community, and supporting many groups within his community to that end. It's a great tribute to him.

The first charge of the government—in fact, of any government—is to make sure that we, as best we can, protect our public and to make sure that we do all that we can to provide support to our agencies to make sure that they can stare down the threats of terrorism, organised crime and cybercrime, and we as a government do that. The Prime Minister has been very clear that the first charge of the government is to fulfil that duty, and we are doing it.

But we know that you can't do that if you can't first secure your borders. We know that, when Mr Rudd became Prime Minister of this country and the current Leader of the Opposition was sitting at the cabinet table, successive decisions were made which resulted in thousands of people coming by boat—in fact, 50,000 people on 800 boats. Twelve hundred people, tragically, drowned at sea. Thousands of children went into detention. Since our government was elected, we have made sure that we have kept the boats stopped. Why would Labor have allowed themselves into the position where, when John Howard left office, there were only four people in government—sorry! It wasn't that bad an election in 2007! I came close myself, but it wasn't that bad. There were four people in detention, including no children—no children at all.

When the Left of the Labor Party overtook the leadership within the Labor Party, we saw what happened with public policy. We are seeing it again in relation to national security as well, where the Left of the Labor Party cannot be put back into their boxes, as they should be, by a Leader of the Opposition who is too weak to do so. Most Australians know this Leader of the Opposition is duplicitous at best. They know that he's a con artist and—

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

The minister will resume his seat. He will withdraw on two occasions. Can I just say, before I call the minister back to the dispatch box, that I do reflect on these matters, and there were a couple of occasions yesterday where I should have pulled him up and I didn't, where I have before on a number of occasions for those sorts of references to members. He will withdraw.

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

I withdraw, Mr Speaker. I'm happy to do so. The Australian public know this about the Leader of the Opposition: he has one thing to say to one audience and something different to say to another audience. That is why he cannot be trusted when it comes to border security—because he is telling the Left of his party one thing and the Australian public something very different. We know that Labor went to the last election with a policy which would have resulted in boats recommencing, people drowning at sea and kids going back into detention. We know that, in relation to national security, the Left of the Labor Party is completely out of control, and we saw that yesterday with a tweet from the member for Lindsay, who quickly deleted it after she was contacted by the Leader of the Opposition's office. But has he been strong enough to come out and condemn it? No, he hasn't.