Don Farrell (SA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Senator Johnston told us what he would do if he were the minister. Of course, he is not the minister, because the Australian people rejected the border protection policies of the previous government. What did the Australian people do on 24 November last year? They turned to the Australian Labor Party because they preferred the border protection policies of the Australian Labor Party. Just like they preferred our policies on Work Choices to the inhumane way that you treated Australian workers, they rejected your policy on the issue of border protection. They turned to us. They knew that your policy was not working. Your policies were not fixing the problem of border protection, so they turned to us.

What are we doing? We are fixing the problem. The Rudd Labor government is, of course, committed to strong border protection, and we are determined to operate it effectively and appropriately, particularly in ensuring that people who are acting to introduce people smuggling do not succeed in achieving that. Labor has retained the excising of the offshore islands. Labor has retained mandatory detention and processing on Christmas Island for unauthorised boat arrivals. Labor has also retained the patrolling of our borders, which is undertaken by Border Protection Command.