Stephen Conroy (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, Mr President. I can understand why the questioner just completely reworded his question on his feet to avoid mentioning the Howard government policies in his point of order. What we know about the Howard government policies is that the former Defence Chief Admiral Chris Barrie said turning back boats is not fair to the Navy and will mean asylum seekers will simply sink the boats. We stand by our policy agenda here. We stand by the expert panel on asylum seekers that reported on 13 August and put forward a range of measures. Senator Scullion cannot airbrush out of his question his reference to Mr Howard's policies, because what did Defence Force Chief Admiral Barrie say?

Opposition senators interjecting—

'You can imagine that the opposition in government might be able to secure an arrangement with Indonesia.' What did Mr Barrie say? 'It's filthy, dirty work for the Navy.'

Opposition senators interjecting—

Of course it is traditional. He went on to say, 'The engines had to be rebuilt because they were destroyed as soon as the boats sighted one of our vessels.' He said, 'You put all that into the equation and you ask yourself: what are asylum seeker boats going to do if this is the policy'—a return to the Howard government policy, as championed by those opposite—'when they sight one of our vessels on the high seas?' (Time expired)