Senator CORMANN (Western Australia—Minister for Finance and the Public Service, Vice-President of the Executive Council and Leader of the Government in the Senate) (15:04): There is no doubt the Senate should be spending more time dealing with what is a very important piece of legislation, in particular, given how many amendments have been circulated. The amendments that have been circulated by Senator McKim and Senator Storer present a very serious risk to the integrity of our border protection policy framework. They present a serious risk in that they undermine the effective operation of our offshore processing arrangements. One of the central foundations of our successful efforts to stop the boats, which flooded Australia during the last Labor government, was a three-pronged policy framework. The first part was to turn boats around when it was safe to do so, which was something that former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said could not be done, but, of course, it was done. And it was done under the leadership of none other than our Prime Minister, Scott Morrison. Our Prime Minister, Scott Morrison, is the one who actually cleaned up the mess left behind by two successive Labor governments, with the very active and outstanding support of none other than Senator Jim Molan, who provided significant advice to Mr Morrison in opposition and subsequent to coming into government. So the first part was to turn the boats around when it was safe to do so. The second part was temporary protection visas, and the third was offshore processing arrangements. Under Labor, 800 boats arrived here illegally with more than 50,000 illegal boat arrivals and more than 1,000 people drowned at sea. Labor is now attaching themselves to a Greens motion, moved by Senator McKim of all people. If Senator McKim is going to be writing the national security policies of the Leader of the Opposition—who wants the Australian people to believe that he is the alternative Prime Minister of Australia—I say to the Australian people: 'Don't risk it. You don't want your Prime Minister to be somebody who is prepared to have his border security policies written by Senator McKim.' You could have knocked me over with a feather when I was advised that Labor had decided— Senator Wong: A pretty big stick or a pretty big feather? Senator CORMANN: I'm going to resist the interjection because otherwise there will be points of order and you'll be blaming me for playing for time. I wouldn't want you to think that somehow I'm not interested in the efficient— The PRESIDENT: Order! Senator Macdonald, on a point of order. Senator Ian Macdonald: Mr President, it's people who are not even in the chamber who are interjecting, which is very disorderly. They're people who have been around for a while, and they should know better, so I ask you to call them to order. I'm sorry to interrupt my leader. The PRESIDENT: Quite right. There should be no interjections at all, especially from outside the floor of the chamber. Senator CORMANN: My initial assessment was there's no way Mr Shorten would want to be part of a Greens initiated amendment to our offshore processing arrangement but, knock me dead, he is. He is allowing the Greens to write his border protection policy. What I say to the Australian people is: if you don't want to see a return to drownings at sea, if you don't want to see a return of the people smugglers, if you don't want to see the people smugglers get back into business and send illegal boat arrivals to Australia, then don't elect Mr Shorten. His behaviour here today shows to everyone who cares about our border protection arrangements what Mr Shorten would do as Prime Minister. Of course, last time Labor was in government— The PRESIDENT: Senator Macdonald, on a point of order. Senator Ian Macdonald: I'm sorry to interrupt my leader, but there seems to be another meeting happening in the chamber. There's this meeting here in the chamber, and there seems to be a meeting of several senators up there. They can go outside. The PRESIDENT: Senator Macdonald, by convention, senators are allowed to consult with advisers at the advisors box. There is no noise coming from that corner. I think it's being conducted in an orderly fashion. Senator CORMANN: The final point I would make is that, when Labor and the Greens last changed our border protection policies, do you know what happened? We had illegal boat arrivals as far south as Geraldton in Western Australia. The people who were sitting in the Dome Cafe in Geraldton could have been knocked over with a feather too. There was a boat coming over the horizon with illegal boat arrivals. That was the outcome of the last time Labor joined with the Greens to fiddle with our border protection policy framework. Don't do it. Our message to the Labor Party is: 'Don't do it. You don't know how to protect our country. Let us do it. Just accept that our policy framework works'— The PRESIDENT: Senator Bernardi, on a point of order. Senator Bernardi: After your rulings about interjections being disorderly, the only thing I can hear is Senator Whish-Wilson and maybe Senator Cameron interjecting. I'm not sure. It's so noisy I can't hear Senator Cormann. The PRESIDENT: To be fair to Senator Cameron, I don't think he's in the chamber. Oh, he is. I again remind senators—particularly those concerned about time—the fewer interjections, the fewer points of order. Senator Cormann. Senator CORMANN: I would have thought the Labor Party would have learned, if they want to keep our country safe, to keep our policies in place and not to fiddle with our border protection framework by joining in with the Greens as they are again doing today. That's what they did last time, and look at the chaos that created, including more than a thousand people dead at sea. Surely you don't want to go back there. Don't do it. If you do do it, I say to the Australian people: don't vote in the Labor Party at the next election. Don't do it.