Ian Macdonald (Queensland, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Northern and Remote Australia) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to say a few words in support of the Deterring People Smuggling Bill 2010 and the position Senator Brandis indicated. But before I do I will make some comments on the contribution by the previous speaker, Senator Hanson-Young. I remind the previous speaker and the people of Australia that, when Mr Howard was Prime Minister, there were at times a number of illegal entries to Australia—boat people. Through a bit of trial and error, we eventually got a system in place where we had offshore processing in Nauru—and this actually did stop the boats. It worked. So for Senator Hanson-Young to suggest that this did not work, that nothing has worked, is simply incorrect and contrary to the facts. Under the Howard government, this did—