Subjects: Operation Sovereign Borders; Labor’s border security crisis.
E&OE.
QUESTION:
Government ministers have accused you of helping people smugglers promote their trade. Do politicians have to be more careful?
Have you asked for a briefing on what has occurred in Western Australia? And are you supportive of these men being flown to Nauru?
PETER DUTTON:
In the Rudd-Gillard years, the Labor Party lost control of our borders, people tragically drowned at sea, and women and children were put into detention. Anthony Albanese was central to that period of government. He was there dismantling the Howard Government policies. In Opposition he rallied against Bill Shorten, who wanted to tighten up the border protection policy in Labor, and the fact is that Anthony Albanese has never believed in Operation Sovereign Borders. He has always fought hard against it.
We know that in the last budget, on a cumulative basis, $600 million has been taken from Border Force and from Operation Sovereign Borders. As the Australian Border Force Commissioner points out, they are ‘stretched’ and I don’t know whether the same level of surveillance is being undertaken as was the case when we were in government, but it’s inconceivable that these boats would get through without being detected.
The Prime Minister himself had no clue what the journalist was asking about when this news story first broke, and, as we know, Operation Sovereign Borders as its term now is nothing like Operation Sovereign Borders under the Liberal Party. We know that temporary protection visas have been abolished, and we also know that they’ve ripped money out of Operation Sovereign Borders. So, the Prime Minister can’t look the Australian people in the eye and honestly tell them that Operation Sovereign Borders is operating as it did under a Coalition Government.
This is another example of a train wreck policy from this Government. It’s not just the energy policy that’s a train wreck, not just economic policy, but it’s also on their border protection policies, and the people smugglers sniff a weak leader, and that’s exactly what has happened here.
So, we’ll seek a briefing in due course, but the Government needs to be honest and frank and open in relation to this issue. We don’t know whether it’s one or two boats that have arrived. The Prime Minister himself wasn’t aware, so how can two boats get to the Australian mainland without being detected if the same settings were in place that we had under the Coalition in Operation Sovereign Borders?
We always stand for strong borders, and we always clean up a Labor mess.
Anthony Albanese has never believed in border protection policy. He might tell the public one thing, but as we know with this Prime Minister, he can’t be trusted and you can’t take him at his word, because when he says his ‘word is his bond,’ he means that he’s going to tell you a lie in the next sentence, and that’s exactly what we’re seeing, it’s what the people smugglers are seeing, and it’s now what the Australian people are seeing: a Government that is starting to lose control again of our borders.
Thank you very much.
[ends]