Scott Ryan (Victoria, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Small Business and Fair Competition) Share this | Hansard source

I am amazed by the contribution we have just had. The Labor Party is constantly coming into this place saying there should not be a debate on this. Well, there is going to be a debate on this because this is about Labor's record and Labor's record goes to whether it can be trusted to deliver a solution to this crisis that is the creation of their own actions. In the previous government—well, two governments ago if we judge the previous Prime Minister's as a different government—people on that side of the chamber, members of the Labor Party, sledged former minister Ruddock, sledged the Prime Minister and accused the Liberal Party and the coalition of immorality. They accused us of policy failure and they blamed the government and attacked it for the loss of life at sea and then they came out with the current Prime Minister's infamous words of 'another boat, another policy failure'. So don't you come in here and start crying crocodile tears about political debate, because what you said, particularly about former minister Ruddock, was nothing short of a disgrace and history will judge you for it.

This debate is happening because of Labor's record. I note that members of the Labor Party seem to be running away from the term 'Pacific solution' and trying to differentiate it. There are reasons this is different but I say that the only difference for the Labor Party is that while they are sending people to the Pacific this will not provide a solution to the crisis they have created. It is difficult to define the greatest failure of this government. Some might say it would have been pink batts, houses burning down and, sadly, a few tragic deaths and billions wasted. Some might say it would be the record deficits. But I would say that the unwinding of a successful border protection policy, the unwinding of a successful refugee-processing policy and the loss of control over people seeking access to our nation is without a doubt its greatest failure, not only for that but also because of the loss of life. It is one of the most basic definitions of a state, being able to control access to and egress from one's own borders.

We had a situation under the previous government that worked. The Labor Party broke it. You were warned about the consequences and you were warned that you were creating pull factors but your hubris meant that you refused to listen. You thought you had all the answers. You had impugned the motives and actions of the previous government and you ignored the warnings that you were given. You created this crisis that this country has suffered from, as have the many people who have sought to cross the seas on dangerous boat journeys. Let us look at the consequences: 25,000 asylum seekers—more than the annual humanitarian intake for this country—including 10,000 this year and nearly 2,000 since the Labor Party announced its so-called solution. Then, of course, there is the tragedy of more than 700 known deaths at sea. Minister Evans said at the time, followed by speaker after speaker, 'Pull factors are irrelevant. These are all push factors.' We know that is not the case. You now admit that is not the case, but you are not putting in place the solutions that are necessary to prevent these dangerous journeys from occurring. You talk about incentives. You talk about providing no advantage. Yet you accuse the previous government of being morally repugnant for having a deterrent in place—as if passing the words in the modern Labor Party style somehow gives you a claim to moral superiority. This is typical of the Labor Party. The Labor Party will not admit that it got it wrong. Until it understands why it got this policy wrong, it cannot be trusted to fix the crisis that it has created.

I note that the previous speaker talked about the Houston report as requiring a suite of measures. The opposition has long said that a suite of measures is necessary. The opposition had in place a suite of measures. It had in place temporary protection visas. It had in place a policy of turning back the boats where it was safe to do so. No matter how often you come in here, or go on radio, and sledge and mislead and talk about whether or not those policies work, the numbers tell the story. There were a handful of people in detention when the previous government left office, and there are now thousands of people in detention. Thousands more have gone into the community under a regime different from that which was applied under the Howard government.

Seeking to control access to the borders of one's own country is an entirely legitimate thing for the government to do. It is not something that the Greens coalition partners are happy with, I understand, but it is the right thing to do because it allows us to sustain a high humanitarian intake and a strong immigration policy.