Natasha Griggs (Solomon, Country Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on this matter of public importance, the impact of the record number of people illegally entering Australia by boat under this government. The boats keep coming, and that is why again I have to speak about the Gillard Labor government's absolute failure to protect our nation by efficiently protecting our borders and our immigration program. It is clear to all that the Gillard Labor government has lost control of our borders, and the people smugglers are jumping for joy because they still have a product to sell and will do that at any cost.

Australians know that it is the Gillard Labor government that undid the border protection policies introduced by the Howard government. As I have said in this place before, it does not surprise me to hear very concerning reports that the people smugglers are racing to fill their boats before 14 September, and we all know why: because the Gillard Labor government has the welcome mat out and that will be laid out until then. With the election date fast approaching and with a possible change of government, the people smugglers are doing all they can to fill their boats as fast as they can. The Gillard Labor government is complicit in this because it removed the border protection policies that have been proven to work. The people smugglers know that the coalition will stop the boats.

We are seeing evidence that Labor's border protection failures continue day after day—so much so that the people smugglers are looking for any chink in the armour after the Gillard Labor government's cuts have left our hardworking border protection service overworked and understaffed for the increasing number of boat arrivals. What we can infer from the recent influx of boat arrivals approaching the Top End of Australia is that the recent people smuggler boats have been targeting the mainland of Australia in a bid to exploit the legal loophole that would exclude people from being sent offshore for processing. Let's all remember that it is the Gillard Labor government that has been messing around with this excision bill and failed to get it to pass through the Senate whilst it was too busy pushing through its media reform bills. The Gillard Labor government foolishly pursued its media reform bills instead of passing legislation to excise the mainland of Australia. This just meant that the people smugglers can continue to sell their product: to get to the Australian mainland so their clients can avoid being processed offshore.

Many people in my electorate tell me that they are tired of the Gillard Labor government wasting money when Darwin and Palmerston, like so many other jurisdictions across the country, are in desperate need of funding for improvements in health, education, community safety, housing and child care. After almost six years at its disposal, the Gillard Labor government has not stopped and will not stop the boats. It cannot. We are seeing record numbers of arrivals. The Northern Territory News reported last week that the number of illegal arrivals by boat had hit 40,000. The Northern Territory News also reported the disgusting conditions people smugglers are inflicting on their clients.

So let's just look at how many arrivals have been intercepted off the shores of Darwin this year alone. On 1 January HMAS Armidale intercepted a boat west of Darwin carrying 43 people. On 28 February HMAS Launceston intercepted a boat north-north-west of Darwin carrying 33 people. On 20 March HMAS Pirie intercepted a boat west-north-west of Darwin carrying 78 people. On 24 March HMAS Pirie again intercepted a boat north-west of Darwin carrying 41 people. On 27 March HMAS Pirie again intercepted a boat south-west of Darwin carrying 147 people. On 3 April HMAS Bundaberg intercepted a boat north-west of Darwin carrying 41 people. On 9 April HMAS Ararat intercepted a boat north-west of Darwin carrying 73 people. On 17 April HMAS Childers intercepted a boat west-south-west of Darwin carrying 78 people. On 21 April HMAS Maryborough intercepted a boat north-west of Darwin carrying 67 people. On 23 April, ACV Ocean Protector intercepted a boat north-north-east of Darwin carrying 65 people. On 26 April, HMAS Maitland intercepted a boat west-north-west of Darwin carrying 75 people. On 3 May, HMAS Albany intercepted a boat west-north-west of Darwin carrying 160 people. On 4 May, ACV Botany Bay andMV OMS Endurance intercepted a boat north-west of Darwin carrying 105 people. That is 13 boats targeted for Darwin, carrying 1,006 people. Clearly, there is a new approach for the people smugglers and they are targeting the Top End. That is over 1,000 extra people putting pressure on our services in the Top End, where our services are already under pressure and completely thin on the ground.

Let's just look at the track record for all of the arrivals. Two hundred and eighty-eight boats and 18,255 people have arrived in Australia since August 14 last year. This was when the Gillard Labor government agreed to open Nauru as an offshore processing centre. This was their big deterrent. Clearly that has not worked either. Since the last federal election there have been 673 boats and 40,772 people that have arrived illegally on our shores. What a great track record—they should be so proud!

Let's look at the cost. It is over $5 billion. As I have said in this place before, I can only imagine what I could do in Solomon with $5 billion. $5 billion would go a long way towards the NDIS too, wouldn't it? But clearly we have spent it on different things. Five billion dollars would be able to fund a desperately needed hospital in Palmerston. It would be able to fund new police to improve community safety, perhaps a new school for our ever-increasing population, affordable housing for the Territorians who are being forced into homelessness every day due to the housing crisis, improvements to our roads to combat the ever-increasing traffic due to our population growth. No wonder the people of my electorate are fed up with the Gillard Labor government and its failed border protection policies—policies that give the people smugglers a product to sell.

People in my electorate know very well that every dollar spent on combating people smugglers is a dollar not spent in our community. Darwin has become the Gillard Labor government's front line failure for border protection policies. Our detention centres are full. The Prime Minister was in Darwin last weekend when 18 detainees escaped from our detention centre. She knows first-hand how she and her border protection policies have failed, and have impacted significantly on my electorate, because the boats continue to arrive to the point where families and children are now being transferred to detention centres that were previously used for males. After the Gillard Labor government promised children would be removed from formal detention and removed from being behind barbed wire, they are now being relocated to a site previously only suitable for males in detention. Another Labor broken promise.

There is a different way. The coalition does have a plan, an alternative to mitigate the disastrous impact that the Gillard Labor government has had on border protection. We have stopped the boats before and we will do it again. The coalition will restore what the Labor Party abandoned: a strong border protection regime developed by the coalition as a priority to protect our nation's borders.

The coalition will reintroduce off-shore processing of illegal boat arrivals as part of a series of measures to stop the boats and protect our borders. We will prevent this problem by minimising the numbers coming from both initial countries of origin and first asylum countries. We will disrupt the business of people smuggling and intercept the boats where it is safe to do so. We will make it a priority to identify and assist those in genuine need of refugee protection as early as possible. We have done it before and we will do it again.

The Howard government successfully reduced the flood of illegal arrivals to a mere trickle. Between 2002 and 2007, 10 illegal entry boats arrived with fewer than 250 passengers. Compare this with over 400 boats and 25,000 people arriving illegally since the last federal election. It is fair to say Labor's management of this issue has been a disaster. The boats must be stopped. There is no argument that people smuggling is a good result for anyone. It is unsafe for asylum seekers and every year people die from taking this risk. Stopping the boats is a priority in my electorate, and given the opportunity, the coalition has made it a priority to fix this disaster and the legacy of the Gillard-led Labor government. (Time expired)

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