Michaelia Cash (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Senator Sterle laughs at those figures, but those people are being exploited by the people smugglers to whom you, with your policies, have given the green light, and that is absolutely shameful. The Minister for Immigration and Citizenship last Thursday during question time also said that boat arrivals are ‘an ongoing problem for Australia’. Without doubt, on that point he is correct.

I will get to Mr Rudd’s evidence based policy shortly, but let us get the facts straight. The increase in the number of unlawful arrivals is only a problem for Australians because of the Labor government’s soft border protection policies. The facts speak for themselves. Under the Howard government Australia sent a strong, consistent message to people smugglers: our doors are closed to unlawful people. The weakening, though, of the immigration policy by the Labor government has encouraged the biggest surge in people-smuggling since 2001 and 2002. In fact, after the Howard government put in place strong border protection measures, how many boats arrived in Australia between 2002-03 and 2004-05? None.

The Minister for Immigration and Citizenship raised an interesting statistic yesterday. He said, ‘But hold on, we need to look back at the figures from 2001 and 2002, when we had some 4,137 people arrive illegally here in the first year and 1,212 in the second year,’ and the minister is right. But, based on that evidence—because we know the Labor Party love evidence based policy—the Howard government took steps to put in place policies that would ensure that people smugglers were not able to ply their despicable trade. What did we have as a result of the strong policies implemented by the Howard government? The number of people trying to come here unlawfully went down to zero.

Unlike Senator Sterle, unlike the Labor Party, the Howard government recognised that the most fundamental responsibility of a federal government is to ensure the security of the nation and its people, and it took effective steps to ensure that it discharged its responsibility. Mr Rudd keeps telling the Australian people he is committed to evidence based policy. Well, Mr Rudd, here is some evidence for you in relation to the unlawful arrivals into Australian waters and onshore since your Labor government was elected. Thirty-one boats have been intercepted. I have here pages and pages setting out the number of people who have arrived in this country unlawfully. If you want evidence, there it is, and the evidence supports your inability to manage Australia’s border security. (Time expired)