Speeches and Transcripts

Transcript - Canberra Doorstop

Thursday 16th February 2012

SUBJECTS: Arrival of second boat in 24 hours, Chris Bowen’s job application for Treasurer

E and OE

MORRISON:
A fog has descended on Parliament House today and a fog has certainly descended on this government. A fog of division, a fog of denial. Two boats arrived yesterday, almost 200 people on those boats and what we have from the Minister for Immigration is the usual. His only response to what is happening on his watch is to blame Tony Abbott, to embrace the Greens, to refuse to restore the proven border protections of the Howard government and to apply for the job of Treasurer.

This Minister’s opinion piece in The Australian today is nothing more than a blatant job application for the position of Treasurer and he has absolute chaos on his watch in his own department. It’s not good enough for this government who has had an almost $4 billion blow out in their budget from their border protection failures – for their only response to be to blame Tony Abbott, to embrace the Greens, to refuse to restore the proven policies of the Howard government and then seek to scurry away as this Minister is doing in a naked bid to become treasurer by making Kevin Rudd Prime Minister.

This is a government completely distracted and divided by its own internal divisions and as long as that continues to happen, as long as this government has no response – I mean, blaming Tony Abbott is not a policy on how to stop the boats. It’s an excuse. The Minister for Immigration has become the Minister for excuses and the boats and the costs continue to come.

QUESTION:
The boats arriving don’t seem to be headline news anymore. Do you think people are accepting now that boats will come?

MORRISON:
Well the media may accept that and the media may not report it – that’s a matter for the media. What the Australian people know is that under this government, there has been a blow out of $3.9 billion on their watch, from their decision to abolish the proven measures of the Howard government. This is costing us – I mean this government has put more beds in detention centres than they have in public hospitals. Yesterday in this place, the government voted to take $2.4 billion out of the private health system and put nothing into the public health system. What they’ve done is they’ve put $4 billion almost in blow outs into a detention network that has only blown out because of this government’s border protection failures. That’s why this issue is relevant to the Australian people. They’re sick of this government’s incompetence and failures and their excuses.

QUESTION:
You talk about the government embracing the Greens. Why doesn’t the Coalition embrace the government on these issues in bipartisanship?

MORRISON:
Because the government’s policies have failed and the government’s policies we don’t believe are the way to go forward. This government abolished proven measures and they refused to restore them. They’re not serious about reopening Nauru, they’re not serious about restoring temporary protection visas, that was nothing more than a fit-up over Christmas to try and blame the Opposition for the government’s own problems. This government should simply restore the position that was in place before the 2007 election where only four people in detention who’d arrived by boat. Today, that figure is over 6000.

QUESTION:
Why don’t you call his bluff if you don’t think he’s serious about reopening Nauru?

MORRISON:
Well we have. He could reopen it today if he wants to and he hasn’t. All he’s done is he’s sent two people to Nauru who’d never been there before, who came back with an estimate of costs of $2 billion to set up a 750 bed centre. I mean, it was a ridiculous quote, it was a ridiculous costing and the Minister should be ashamed of it. And if this Minister wants to be treasurer, as he clearly wants to be through his job application in The Australian newspaper today, then heaven help us if he does to the nation’s finances what he’s done to the immigration portfolio, which since the last election alone there have been blow outs of more than $2 billion on his watch. Heaven help us if Minister Bowen gets anywhere near the nation’s finances under Kevin Rudd.

QUESTION:
[inaudible]

MORRISON:
Well that’s a matter for the government because the government refuses to change their legislation. So that’s a matter for the government. They want the Opposition to pass their bill but they haven’t changed their bill – not one full stop, not one punctuation mark, not one letter, not one word. All they’ve sort to do is trash the measures of the Coalition that worked when we were in government – and they refuse to restore them. Their next step is to blame the Opposition then in what is nothing more than a mindless political tactic straight out of Sussex Street. Let’s not forget Minister Bowen was Carl Scully’s Chief of Staff in the failed NSW government so this is going straight to the old NSW right playbook. They’ve embraced the Greens’ policy in their entirety and they refuse to restore the measures that work. No wonder he’s trying to scurry away.

QUESTION:
But don’t you appreciate that they’re willing to move on this –

MORRISON:
They’re not willing to move on this.

QUESTION:
Mr Bowen in caucus has been -

MORRISON:
I don’t believe him.

QUESTION:
-he’s actually supporting a detention centre –

MORRISON:
He is not supporting Nauru. I know that because at the first opportunity he sought to trash Nauru. This government can’t be trusted. The Australian people know that. Certainly the crossbenchers and Andrew Wilkie know that. Certainly Kevin Rudd knows it because this Prime Minister dispatched him 18 months ago and is now mired in the controversy of what she did and didn’t know. This government can’t be trusted. The Coalition doesn’t trust them, the Australian people don’t trust them and the only people who trust this government are the people smugglers because they know they can rely on this government’s policies for their trade to continue.

QUESTION:
It wasn’t really the first opportunity, it was really the last opportunity wasn’t it after you already said you wouldn’t be willing to meet much further?

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