Matt Smith (Leichhardt, Australian Labor Party) | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Home Affairs. Can the minister update the House on the operation in Weipa, and what other approaches to border security are there?

Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the House) | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Leichhardt. I acknowledge the strong role that the member for Leichhardt has had in combating foreign fishing and, in particular, in calling for the work of Border Force that's up there now in Operation BROADSTAFF. It has made an extraordinary impact, and some of those people who were trying to steal fish stocks from the locals up there in Leichhardt have discovered fairly suddenly that their vessels have been burnt and that those waters are there for the locals and not for those who want to come in from elsewhere.

Some of those would have seen some comments from the opposition this morning. Let me start with this: anyone who saw last night on the news that a number of people had tried to enter our country without a visa should know that, by the time they woke up this morning, every single one of them had been removed from Australia—every single one. Now, that simple fact did not stop members of those opposite claiming that the opposite was true. But the simple fact is that every single one of those individuals who tried to enter Australia without a visa had been removed by morning, and those who tried to assist them have been arrested.

There are two things that the opposition, right now, is wanting to deliver for people smugglers and that people smugglers would be tremendously grateful for. People smugglers want there to be footage of Australian voices claiming that people smuggling will work, and those opposite are providing it.

The second thing that people smugglers want is access to information. They want access to information about operations and surveillance, which is why I was surprised that, only this week, all three right-wing in the Senate parties voted with the Greens to make sure that surveillance information would be made available to people smugglers. All three of them voted.

For a long time, it has been accepted that there were good national security reasons for any information about surveillance—about surveillance contracts, about the operations of Operation Sovereign Borders—not being made public. When different occasions have occurred and briefings have been sought in private, that has occurred. But, instead, this Leader of the Opposition thinks it's okay that the information that the people smugglers want be made public and handed over directly to them. He's the friend they want that previous opposition leaders haven't been.