Michaelia Cash (WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Immigration) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the minister representing the Minister for Immigration and Citizenship, Senator Carr. Given that the current Prime Minister used to say that every boat arrival constitutes another policy failure and in light of the hundredth boat arrival under the current Prime Minister's watch over the weekend, will the minister now concede that this government has a tonne of policy failures?

Kim Carr (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the senator for her question. What we can say with certainty is that this government—

Honourable Senators:

Honourable senators interjecting—

John Hogg (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Carr, resume your seat. The chamber is wanting to debate the issue.

Kim Carr (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The government is committed to breaking the people-smuggling trade. The Prime Minister has announced that we will be introducing legislation to the parliament to amend the Migration Act to provide certainty for offshore processing. The cost of implementing the transfer arrangement with Malaysia will be, as has been previously announced, some $292 million. What we have here is—

Honourable senators interjecting—

John Hogg (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Carr, resume your seat until there is silence. You may now continue.

Kim Carr (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Those opposite have to answer a pretty basic question, and that is: why would they waste some $980 million over four years on operational expenses along with the assessment centre in Nauru which will make no difference to those who are actually plying the people-smuggling trade? I would ask Senator Cash to enlighten the Senate on the way in which those opposite are actually prepared to ignore the experts who have identified quite clearly that the model that is being proposed by the opposition has failed. It has failed dismally. This is nothing but a cheap, political stunt to try to present the view that they have the answers to what are quite complex problems.

That is quite sharply in contrast to what the government are adopting. We are committed to orderly migration programs. We are committed to ensuring that we bust open the people smugglers' racketeering. Those opposite would enhance that racket­eering by proposing solutions which they know will not work and which they know, as they did in the past, would end up ensuring that Nauru is— (Time expired)

Michaelia Cash (WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Immigration) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask a supplementary question. Given that the—

Opposition Senators:

Opposition senators interjecting—

John Hogg (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Cash, you are seeking the call, rightly, to ask a question and be heard in silence and it is your own side who are drowning you out. It is very hard. You are entitled to be heard in silence by both sides.

Michaelia Cash (WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Immigration) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is difficult to drown me out, but I accept that. Given that there have been 240 boat arrivals carrying over 12,000 asylum seekers since the government scrapped the tough measures introduced by the previous coalition government, will the minister now concede that a government without a border protection policy is a government content with a never-ending raft of unlawful boat arrivals and border chaos?

Kim Carr (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Perhaps I could remind Senator Cash that the message that we are sending is that we will ensure that those who are plying the people-smuggling trade will be stren­uously opposed. We are, on the other hand, very keen to increase Australia's humani­tarian impact. We are helping improve the treatment of refugees throughout the region, and we are quite genuinely contributing to a regional solution on these issues.

What I can also remind senators opposite is that, under their proposal, 95 per cent of those who ended up in Nauru—

Honourable Senators:

Honourable senators interjecting—

John Hogg (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Just sit down, Senator Carr. The time for debating this, I remind the chamber, is after question time.

Kim Carr (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Of those people who were left to rot on Nauru, 95 per cent were found to be refugees and ended up settling in Australia and New Zealand. So the claims made by those opposite when they were in government were demonstrably untrue. In fact, we had a 95 per cent failure rate— (Time expired)

Michaelia Cash (WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Immigration) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask a further supplementary question. Is the minister aware of comments made by his colleague Senator Mark Bishop, from Western Aust­ralia, who recently said that the 'very existence of the government itself' was threatened by its botched mishandling of the Malaysian solution? If the government's own caucus members do not have confidence in its boarder protection policies, how can it expect the Australian people to?

Kim Carr (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

What I am aware of is that the government is very clear: we are intending to amend the Migration Act to ensure that we are able to provide the opportunities to work with Malaysia so that we can ensure that persons who do arrive will be able to be treated properly in Malaysia. We are also very clear that the opposition's policy in regard to Nauru is totally ineffective and very costly. What we do know is that the strategies pursued by those opposite—they will have their opportunity; they will get their opportunity to respond to the govern­ment's invitation. We look forward with interest to what the opposition has to say about amending the Migration Act. What we do know is that the policies that were pursued by the coalition when it was gov­ernment failed dismally and that we saw some 8,000 people encouraged to get onto rickety boats—

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

It's a lie!

John Hogg (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Brandis, you will withdraw.

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

I withdraw.

Kim Carr (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Over a period of two years 8,000 people were actually encouraged to get onto rickety boats under your— (Time expired)

Chris Evans (WA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Government in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask that further questions be placed on the Notice Paper.