Kelly, Craig, MP

Mr CRAIG KELLY (Hughes) (12:09): It was very interesting to hear the member for Fenner say that the coalition have mucked up our refugee policies. It would be hard to find a more inaccurate statement made in this chamber than 'It was the coalition that mucked up our refugee policies.' As I have listened to this debate on the Migration Legislation Amendment (Regional Processing Cohort) Bill 2016 I have got a sense of deja vu, as I am sure most Australians who remember the history of our recent policies on refugees have. It is worth going through the recent history to show how naive and mistaken the comment was that it was the coalition that mucked up our refugee policies. I remember well that during the John Howard government, the previous coalition government, we had an influx of people making a sea voyage from the island of Java to Christmas Island as a way of shortcutting our process of selecting refugees. They paid people smugglers up to $10,000 to get them a visa outcome. The Howard government had to put in some tough and hard policies to stop that trade. On every single policy it was members of the Labor Party and the Greens who criticised, vilified and called members of the Howard government racist for bringing in such policies. But we know it was successful—the boats stopped. When the Howard government lost the election to Labor in 2007 there were fewer than four people who had come in illegally in detention in the whole nation. Then we had the Labor Party thinking that they were morally superior and that they knew better. Again they unpicked that policy. Every time they unpicked it the coalition said: 'You're doing the wrong thing. This will result in the recommencement of the people smuggler trade.' No, Labor and the Greens knew best! They went ahead and unpicked those policies. We all know what happened—50,000 people arrived unlawfully. They travelled through Java to Christmas Island. They left the island of Java, where they were in no physical danger. They may have fled from their original homeland but when they left Indonesia they were fleeing from nobody. They were simply looking for a better economic outcome. I do not blame them for one second. If I were caught up in the Middle East or in many parts of Asia, I would do every single thing I could to get my family to Australia. So I do not blame those people. With the Labor Party's policies the people smugglers were put back in business. There were 50,000 arrivals, over 800 boats and an $11 billion blowout. That $11 billion could have been put into our health system, education and aged care. It could have been for kids with disabilities. It was a blowout of costs because of Labor's policies that were soft on border protection. Worst of all, we know that there were over 1,200 souls lost at sea—there were 1,200 drownings. We saw Labor oversee the grossest policy failure this nation has ever witnessed. It took the coalition in opposition to formulate policies that would stop the boats. Again, every time we put forward those policies the Labor Party said, 'No, this can't work,' and the Greens said: 'These are terrible racist policies. They won't work.' They said we could not turn the boats back. We know the history. The coalition won the election and with a mandate from the Australian people we put those policies into place. Against all predictions from those on that side of the chamber the policies were successful. The boats stopped dead. We were able to clear the detention centres. We were able to get the children out of detention. What I find most amazing about the issue of children in detention is that it was the Labor Party that put 8,000 children in detention and locked them up. When that happened, what did we hear from the human rights industry? Crickets! We heard not a single peep out of them. When the Labor Party locked up 8,000 kids and put them in detention we heard not a single peep from those people that had complained, protested and marched in the streets against the Howard government's policies. It was only when the coalition came into office and started to get kids out of detention that those people found their feet, found their voices and were attacking the coalition about how terrible it was and what had to be done to get the kids out of detention. We were successful. We got those kids out of detention. There is not a single child in detention on the mainland of Australia, because of the policies of the coalition government. With that success you would think that when it comes to refugees and border protection the Labor Party and the Greens would just be completely silent and they would admit that they got it wrong, not once but time and time again. In fact, every time the Labor Party and the Greens have had to make a decision in this area they have got the policy tragically wrong. And here we go again—coming back into this chamber, the Labor Party know better; they are more compassionate; they know what is needed and they are against the 'evil coalition' that is forced to make the hard decisions. In coming to the decisions that we are making in this bill and the policies that are needed, it is important to go back to the first principles of migration in this nation. Every single Australian can be proud of how successful our immigration program has been and proud that we have taken migrants and refugees from all parts of the globe and settled them in Australia. It becomes a beacon for other countries to copy. It is something we should be very proud of. But in setting those policies the first decision that we have to make is do we have open borders? I know there are many over there on the Labor and Greens side who would like to have a policy of open borders and that anyone who wants to come to Australia can just walk in the front door; there is no need to show their documents and there is no need to check if they have been a recent fighter in the Syrian conflict—just let them all in. But, in today's world, that is not a credible policy. We to have to set a limit on how many people we will allow to migrate to this country and we have to determine how those people will be chosen. It is for the Australian government to decide and for the Australian people to decide what the number will be and how they will come in. It is not the job of people smugglers to do that. Once we set those principles and we set those numbers, we have to have that determination process. That determination process is allowing the coalition government, with the support of the Australian people, to increase the number of refugees that we are taking. We are taking an additional 12,000 refugees from the Syrian conflict. That has only been able to be achieved with popular support from the Australian people, because we have been successful in stopping the boats. We need to maintain the integrity of our border protection policies, because even though we have had such successful migration outcomes for millions of people over so many years, there are some things in our multicultural society that are fraying at the edges. We see an increase in the number of child brides in this country, something that is completely against every principle we believe in. We are seeing an increase in female genital mutilation in the suburbs of Sydney. We are seeing an increase in people who have no allegiance whatsoever to this country who are going overseas to fight against Australian forces. And we are seeing an increase in people wanting to commit violence and criminal acts against our own police forces, both in New South Wales and Victoria, because their allegiance is not firstly to Australia. If we are going to maintain the successful multicultural society that we have developed, we must maintain the integrity of our borders. We must maintain our border protection policies. That is where we come to with this bill. We now have a situation where we have people on Manus Island and Nauru who will need resettlement in some third country. Part of the suite of measures—and this is what the Labor Party said previously, when they were in government—is that people who have come through the people-smuggler supply chain will not be able to settle in Australia. One of the ways they can is that if they are currently on the island of Nauru and then get settlement in a third country and then are able to get a visa to Australia. That will create an incentive for people smugglers to get out there and start their trade up again, saying, 'This is the way you get to Australia.' That is what we are trying to close down, as hard as it possibly seems. In this debate we have heard a great deal of nonsense from members of the Greens and the Labor Party. They have said that once people are on Nauru and they get resettlement to a third country they can never come to Australia—therefore, if they go to New Zealand and are selected for the All Blacks they could then not come to Australia. But they have overlooked a simple fact. Under this legislation and existing legislation there is ministerial discretion. To say that there is a total blanket ban on people coming to Australia is wrong. There is ministerial discretion. This policy is needed because we know there are currently estimated to be 14,000 people in Java in the people-smuggling supply chain, and the people smugglers are trying to tell those people, 'We can get you into Australia. You just have to sit on Nauru, then go to a third country, and then you can apply for a visa to get to Australia.' That is what they are being told now and that is why this legislation needs to be introduced. We have successfully stopped the boats but this legislation is needed to ensure that the boats remain stopped. It can easily be seen as a harsh policy, and I am sure there are many people out there in our community who look at this policy and say that it is harsh. But we have been through this before. Sometimes we need policies that appear harsh from the outset, but they are needed to ensure that the boats remain stopped. The least compassionate thing that we can do for everybody is to let the people-smuggling trade start up again. That is why this legislation is so important. We hope that members of the Labor Party and the Greens will realise their mistakes from before—that they will realise their policy in this area has been wrong every single time and they will support this legislation. I commend the bill to the House.