Michaelia Cash (WA, Liberal Party, Minister for Employment, Skills, Small and Family Business) Share this | Hansard source

What we know is that when you outsource border protection policy to the people smugglers, you are admitting that you have lost control of Australia's borders. Stopping the people smugglers is important not just in relation to border integrity but also to avoid the chaos that we saw under the former Labor government. Let us not forget the disastrous results of the former Labor government's outsourcing of border protection policy to the people smugglers. We saw 50,000 people arrive here illegally on over 800 boats. In fact, at one stage they were issuing a press release on a boat arrival per day. There were 1,200 deaths at sea that we know of, 17 detention centres were opened and over 8,000 children were detained when Labor were last in government. And, of course, there is the now $16 billion blowout in costs as a result of their disastrous policy failure. (Time expired)