Cory Bernardi (SA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I am disappointed in the Labor Party. I thought they would take more issue with this debate on taking note of the answer given by the Minister for Immigration and Citizenship to questions without notice today, relating to asylum seekers. Instead of unleashing the big guns of border protection, the Labor Party have unleashed a trio who are pretending to be tough on border protection and having a mortgage on compassion.

I am disgusted with what Senator Polley said in this debate. She was trying to pick up the racist xenophobia line that is used to so unfairly characterise anyone who wants to be tough on Australian border protection. There are some harsh realities that the Labor Party have to observe here. Mr Deputy President, the Labor Party have to realise that denial is not just a river in Egypt. They are completely in denial about their outrageous policies that are soft on border protection and that are undermining Australia’s border integrity. That much is very clear. For anyone over there to deny that is to refuse reality. Even the minister at question time today said that there were around 1,000 unauthorised arrivals. Minister, I have to tell you that there are 1,456—that is 456 more people than you were prepared to admit to today. You are still in denial. You are in denial that the changes you have made to Australia’s border protection laws are actually encouraging and abetting people in coming here.

Further, Senator Polley has the gall to suggest that the global financial crisis is driving people to use people smugglers. The reality is that it costs thousands and sometimes tens of thousands of dollars for someone to use a people smuggler to come to this country. People have jumped from one country to another country to another country in the hope of getting to Australia. It is hardly the conduct of people fleeing for their lives when they sit around in hotels in Indonesia waiting for a boat to come out here.

The government talks about compassion. Their border protection policies and the changes they have made to the previous policies that were working very well have resulted in things like two men in an esky floating their way over here. They get rescued and say, ‘No, we don’t want to go home.’ The Labor Party should be ashamed of themselves. They are living in a land where reality will not touch their policies. How else can we explain the fact that 1,456 people, on 31 boats, have attempted to make their way to Australia illegally since August 2008? How can we contrast and compare that with what happened in previous years. In 2002, border protection was strengthened and in that year there was one person; in 2003, there were 53; and, in 2004, there were 15 and so on. But when the border protection mechanisms were softened, those figures jumped from 161 to 589 in one year. Since the Labor Party have been elected, there have been 1,456 people in total. Yet the Labor Party say nothing is wrong. The numbers have doubled annually, yet the Labor Party think nothing is wrong. The Labor Party are saying, ‘We’re not encouraging them to come here, because nothing is wrong’—and they frame this as compassion. Do they know what compassion is?

Compassion is preventing people from doing things that are not in their interests, such as hopping into a leaky boat from Indonesia or anywhere else for that matter and putting their lives and those of their families in jeopardy. Compassion means putting people in a position where they can go through legal channels. Senator Polley, that is appropriate compassion. But we do not see that from the Labor Party. The Labor party are saying, ‘Come along and enter our waters illegally and we will house you, we will clothe you, we will feed you and we will give you every incentive to stay in this country.’ The tragedy is that the Labor Party are damned by their own policies. Senator Evans, when in opposition, belittled the Howard government for saying that the Christmas Island detention facility was a white elephant. He could have been right. Had we maintained tough border protection laws, it probably would have been a white elephant and might never have needed to be used. But now it is full to overflowing and the government do not know where to put people. The government are now boasting that they have another detention facility available in Darwin. This is wrong. It is wrong for people to come to this country illegally, to jump the queue and to take the place of those who are going through appropriate, prudent and legal channels. Every illegal immigrant who is allowed to stay in this country means that someone who has done the right thing is not allowed to stay. The Labor Party may be proud of that. They may be happy that their record is going to support that sort of conduct but the coalition is not.