George Brandis (Queensland, Liberal Party, Shadow Attorney-General) Share this | Hansard source

Three per year! That was the situation the Rudd government inherited. After the tough policies came a phoney humanitarianism, Senator Pratt, which encourages women and children onto hazardous seas and puts them in the hands of people smugglers. After those policies were repealed in the name of a phoney humanitarianism the number of unauthorised boat arrivals skyrocketed. In the 2½-year life of the Rudd government there have now been 139 boat arrivals—an average in this calendar year of more than three per week. In the last five years of the Howard government there were three per year—a 50-fold increase. Senator Evans—no friend or supporter of Mr Kevin Rudd’s, as we all know—who has to bear the rap for these policies in this chamber, tried to persuade us that there was no cause-and-effect relationship between these two things. For five years the number of boat arrivals had flatlined. The policy was changed and suddenly there was an upward spike.

It is getting worse because of the signals that have been sent to the people smugglers. In the 12 months of calendar year 2009 there were 71 unauthorised boat arrivals. So far—not quite halfway through calendar year 2010—there have been 61 boat arrivals already. It is nothing more than denial for the government to say that there is no relationship between the softening of the policies, as they have done, and the surge in boat arrivals. In fact, the government’s own conduct by postponing the assessment of Sri Lankan and Afghan asylum seekers gives the lie to the argument that pull factors are not relevant. They themselves have sought to adjust their policy belatedly, too late in the piece. It has not worked because, as in so many other things, the Rudd government lacks the policy courage to do tough things. The Howard government was criticised roundly by certain sections of the community because its policies did have a hard edge. They had to have a hard edge, because all effective deterrents do. But those policies worked just as surely as the Rudd government’s policies have failed.