Scott Morrison : All Content Updates

Media Release : Gillard arrives at people smuggling front line but won't stop the boats

Thu, 29 Jul 2010 14:00:00 GMT

The Coalition has challenged Julia Gillard to use her visit to Western Australia, following Labor's 150th illegal boat arrival, to acknowledge Labor's 150 policy failures and announce policies that will stop the boats arriving off Australia’s north west, Shadow Minister for Immigration and Citizenship, Scott Morrison and Shadow Minister for Justice, Customs and Border Protection, Michael Keenan said today.

“A day after Labor's 150th illegal boat arrival and Labor's 150th policy failure, Julia Gillard has flown into Western Australia where she will also fail to commit to Western Australians to take real action to stop the people smuggling boats from arriving,” Mr Morrison said.

“The people smugglers know that as long as Labor is in business they are in business,” he said.

“Julia Gillard will today continue the mass transfers of asylum seekers to the WA mainland, continue warehousing people smugglers in WA prisons and won’t stop WA taxpayers from continuing to foot the bill for the $1.1 billion border protection blow out that is growing every day,” he said.

“Julia Gillard simply doesn’t have any policy or resolve to stop boat arrivals. The East Timorese Foreign Minister da Costa this week said his country was still waiting for basic details on the so-called ‘plan’ for a regional processing centre in his country. This is no more than a never never plan designed as an election fix.

“The only way to send a message to people smugglers and change Labor’s policies that have encouraged people smugglers, is to change the government,” he said.

Mr Keenan said: “This Labor Government has been bad for WA from the day they took office.

“They have imposed a massive new tax on mining, abandoned their $100 million WA Infrastructure Fund and held back $350 million in federal funding for WA hospitals made available to all the Eastern States.

“And now Prime Minister Gillard is running away from her responsibility to protect Australia’s borders.

“Under Labor’s watch 150 boats have arrived, almost all of which have been intercepted off WA’s coast.

“WA’s prisons are filling with people smugglers, while our towns and mining camps are being turned into processing centres to accommodate the flood of illegal arrivals.

“Julia Gillard and her Labor Government have abused the trust the people of Australia have put in her, especially in WA and especially on the issue of border protection.

“Labor doesn’t deserve a second chance,” he said.

Media Release : People smugglers 150 not out under Labor

Wed, 28 Jul 2010 14:00:00 GMT

People smugglers have reached another milestone under Labor’s failed border protection policies, 150 boat arrivals not out, Shadow Minister for Immigration and Citizenship, Scott Morrison and Shadow Minister for Justice, Customs and Border Protection, Michael Keenan said today.

“The arrival of 150 boats with over 7,100 people on board is a shameful record from a Labor Government that has lost control of our borders and doesn’t believe in a solution,” Mr Morrison said.

“Julia Gillard has insulted Australians by tying to spin them a never never election fix of a processing centre on East Timor that the East Timorese don’t want,” he said.

“East Timorese Foreign Minister da Costa’s comments yesterday that his government was still without even basic details on Labor’s never never processing centre shows that when it comes to border protection Labor is all spin and no substance.

“Hoping to wing their way through an election campaign to dupe Australians into believing in their fairytale processing centre is an offence to voters.

“The fact that this latest boat was yet another in distress also highlights the inherent danger of policies that encourage people smugglers to cram people aboard leaky boats for the trip to Australia.

“In stark contrast to Labor’s empty rhetoric, this week the Coalition met with senior figures of the Nauru Government who are willing to reopen the detention centre on the island nation that was paid for by Australian taxpayers.

“If Julia Gillard was serious about stopping the boats she would pick up the phone immediately to speak with the President of Nauru Marcus Stephen and get the processing centre open again.

“Julia Gillard won’t do this because she doesn’t believe illegal boat arrivals are a problem that needs a real solution. There is only one message we can send people smugglers and that is the election of a Coalition Government,” Mr Morrison said.

Mr Keenan said: “Labor’s record on border protection speaks for itself. This government has presided over an unprecedented number of boats in our waters but they have no real solution to stop them.

“They have slashed jobs and funding from the Customs and Border Protection Service and crippled our working relationship with neighbouring countries. They have failed to keep our country secure.

“At this election the Australian people will have an opportunity to restore strength to our borders by changing government.

“Only a Coalition Government has the resolve and the policies necessary to stop the boats,” he said.

Media Release : Gillard's never never East Timor 'solution' descends further into farce

Tue, 27 Jul 2010 14:00:00 GMT

A statement from the East Timorese Foreign Minister today that he is still waiting for details on Julia Gillard’s so-called ‘East Timor solution’ reveals the extent of farce Julia Gillard’s never never solution in East Timor has descended to, Shadow Minister for Immigration and Citizenship, Scott Morrison said today.

“Foreign Minister da Costa today confirmed that Julia Gillard’s proposal for a regional processing centre in East Timor still does not exist. As East Timor’s Prime Minister Gusmao said at the time, the answer remains ‘what proposal?’” Mr Morrison said.

“Julia Gillard’s never never solution in East Timor is an election con,” he said.

“The East Timorese Parliament has already rejected the idea and now the Foreign Minister of East Timor has made it clear that Julia Gillard has no plan - there are no details, no timeline and no commitment. There’s not even a real discussion.

“Prime Minister Gillard and her Ministers should today come clean and tell Australians the truth – a regional processing centre will never never happen under Labor.

“As opposed to Labor’s attempt to con the Australian people during the election, the Coalition has a real action plan to stop the boats.

“If Julia Gillard was serious she would immediately pick up the phone with the President of Nauru and commence discussions on reopening the Nauru processing centre which was paid for by Australian taxpayers.

“The Coalition’s meetings in recent days with senior members of the Nauru Government and their Parliament, including Foreign Minister Dr Kieren Keke and Opposition Leader Ludwig Scotty, show Nauru is willing and able to negotiate.

“Despite Ms Gillard’s misleading comments and excuses in Sunday’s debate, the political situation in Nauru does not exempt President Marcus Stephen from signing a deal. He has full constitutional authority to act.

“Julia Gillard’s botched handing of offshore processing for illegal boat arrivals at every turn raises serious questions of competence in her ability to manage Australian national interests on these important matters in our region” Mr Morrison said.

Media Release : Transcript - Doorstop interview Brisbane

Mon, 26 Jul 2010 14:00:00 GMT

Subjects: Coalition talks with Nauru Government and Opposition, Nauru Government and Opposition’s willingness to enter negotiations for reopening of offshore processing facility

EandOE

JULIE BISHOP: This morning my colleague Scott Morrison and I have been speaking with Dr Keke, the Foreign Minister of Nauru. I have spoken by telephone and now met him and Scott has been meeting with Dr Keke. Dr Keke has indicated the willingness of the Nauru Government to assist Australia should it so request with the reestablishment and the opening up again of the Australian taxpayer funded detention centre facility on Nauru. It is a fact that the previous Coalition Government took decisive action to stop the flow of boats via the people smuggling trade and we had a number of initiatives in place which included the establishment of an offshore processing centre on Nauru. It was purpose built, it was funded by the Australian taxpayer and it remains available to be used again as an offshore processing centre.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard has made up a whole range of excuses as to why she has not picked up the phone to talk to the Nauru Government about using this facility which is already available yet she is pursuing some fanciful idea that she is negotiating with East Timor over a processing centre on East Timor. That negotiation is not taking place according to the Deputy Prime Minister of East Timor. It will never happen. Yet here we have a solution to the problem that Labor has created. All of the issues that the Prime Minister has raised have been dealt with in the discussions we have had with Dr Keke and under a Coalition Government we will re-establish discussions with Nauru to find a solution to the problem Labor has caused. Labor has lost control of our borders, its border protection policy has failed. We have the answer and I will hand over to my colleague Scott Morrison as Shadow Minister on Immigration to elaborate before asking Dr Keke to make a few comments.

SCOTT MORRISON: Thanks very much Julie and to Dr Keke and Mr [Riddel] Akua who is here joining us as well from the Nauru Parliament. As Julie has said it has been a very productive this morning and we thank Dr Keke for coming along and Mr Akua coming along en route to other discussions they are having in the Pacific today to have these very important discussions here. The matters we have discussed today deal with the practical issues of establishing, re-establishing I should say, the centre on Nauru and there are some very clear points that the Prime Minister of our country has failed to grasp and that is the constitution of Nauru enables the President to enter into an agreement with Australia to reopen the centre at Nauru. There are no constitutional barriers. That can be done today, it could have been done three weeks ago, it could have been done three months ago. There is no constitutional barrier that would prevent the Nauru President from forming agreement with Australia at any time.

The second point that is very clear is that the Nauru Parliament also has already enacted legislation some time ago when the centre was last established which would enable the processing centre to be reopened in Nauru. These are two very key points of difference with the Prime Minister’s never never solution in East Timor. The East Timor Parliament is opposed to the centre in East Timor and there is no progress and there is no legislation that is in place in East Timor that would enable a centre to be established. The other point which is important to make and as I have discussed with Dr Keke after some preliminary discussions were held with the President, is we have also met with the Leader of the Opposition of Nauru Mr Scotty, Mr Ludwig Scotty, I held some discussions with him yesterday and he also indicated the strong support of the opposition parties, not that that is a requirement of the arrangement, the president can act without this. But it’s quite clear that there’s a clear consensus amongst the people of Nauru, and their government, and their parliament that this is something that can be achieved. I’d really like to thank Dr Keke for his kind invitation for the opportunity to visit Nauru. Its welcome, and for me to be able to inspect the facilities that are currently there and then start working through what then might be the practical issues that would have to be addressed in formal discussions, issues such as water and the re-fitting out of the premises and things of that nature. So I would look forward to an early opportunity to inspect those facilities and with that, I’ll ask our friend Dr Keke to make some remarks.

JULIE BISHOP: Just in introducing Dr Keke, might I point out that he is a medical practitioner, he spent some time working in Melbourne and also in Nauru. He was in the Cabinet of the Nauru Government at the time that Australia, under the Howard Government, negotiated with Nauru to establish an offshore processing centre and he’s now been the Foreign Minister of Nauru for a couple of years. So, with that introduction, Dr Keke, would you like to say a few words?

DR KIEREN KEKE: Good morning. Firstly I’d just like to say that we’ve been very happy to meet today with Julie and Scott at their request while we’re in Brisbane transiting on to other business that we have in the region. We understand that the issue of asylum seekers and the challenges that poses to Australia. Nauru has excellent relations with Australia. Australia provides Nauru with a tremendous amount of assistance and, in the same way, if Australia asks Nauru for assistance in ways that we can provide we’re always very keen to provide that assistance and reciprocate. We have done so in the past, we have done in the last few years we’ve been involved in the Bali Process that looks at people smuggling and the issues related to that. Again the proposal or the concept of an offshore facility has come up sometimes and so Nauru has again responded by saying that we are open to negotiating and discussing the feasibility of that . We believe, given the experience that we’ve had in hosting a facility in Nauru that we know how that can work, we’ve seen how well it can work and we believe that we can work very constructively with the Australian Government in this. We understand the situation that Australia is in at the moment, we’ve indicated our willingness to proceed with formal negotiations post the election outcome and at this time we are very open to discussing the issues to assist either side of the Australian Government and politics to understand what’s involved in doing this.

JOURNALIST: Have you made any effort to meet with anyone from the Gillard Government during this trip?

DR KIEREN KEKE: To tell you the truth we are literally transiting in Brisbane for the day. A request was made for us to meet. We’ve been very receptive and open to a meeting should there be a request from the Gillard Government we would accept that invitation.

JOURNALIST: …inaudible…..the way asylum seekers were treated in Nauru before. Would you do anything differently if you were to process the refugees again?

DR KIEREN KEKE: I think there was a lot of negative perceptions created that were unfounded. The asylum seekers in Nauru were actually treated very well. They had excellent facilities, obviously it was established quickly so the facilities were developed over time, but they did have excellent facilities and they were well looked after. They had freedom on Nauru to move about; they went swimming, they went bike riding, they got involved in community activities and attended the local university extension centre. So we believe that a lot of the misconceptions about there being mistreatment of asylum seekers on Nauru was unfounded.

JOURNALIST: inaudible

DR KIEREN KEKE: I think that the issue that was probably of most concern to us at the time was in regards to possible two, the two that had a prolonged stay on Nauru and that was as a consequence of a negative security assessment by ASIO. That was unrelated to their stay on Nauru and unrelated to the process of assessing their claims for asylum. And that will happen anywhere, wherever they are being processed.

JOURNALIST: inaudible

DR KIEREN KEKE: That’s not correct. We have a different constitution and legal framework that actually does not restrict the executive authority of Cabinet and the President. We can still enter into international treaties; we can enter into bilateral arrangements and agreements with other countries, like Australia and there’s nothing that’s restricting the Government at this time from proceeding with discussions of this nature or implementing the establishment of a processing centre on Nauru.

JOURNALIST: inaudible

DR KIEREN KEKE: The Convention…by signing the Convention you’re putting yourself in an international legal environment and that can be achieved without being a signatory to the Convention. We can still protect the rights of people that are seeking asylum without being a signatory to the Convention.

JOURNALIST: inaudible

DR KIEREN KEKE: We’re not saying don’t want to, we will if we decide that’s in Nauru’s interest. But in terms of the arrangement that is being proposed with Australia we don’t see that is either required or an obstacle.
JOURNALIST: Would that be a precondition for you, Mr Morrison?

SCOT T MORRISON: No its not, its not a pre-condition that Nauru be a signatory to the Refugee Convention. Nauru is a participant in the Bali Process that the Coalition established back in 2002. The Refugee Convention requirement from the Government is an excuse; its an excuse not to act; its an excuse not to do anything; its an excuse to try and get them to shuffle through an election without having to pick up the phone to a country that is clearly willing to put in place an offshore processing centre. The centre would be run in accordance with our obligations as well as any others, and the Nauru Government have got an excellent track record in this regard and we have total confidence about how the centre would be run because we’d be very, very involved with that process.

JOURNALIST: inaudible

JULIE BISHOP: On the last occasion when the Australian government and Nauru worked together to establish the offshore processing centre, the UNHCR were involved, the Australian Government obviously set standards and conditions and the Nauru Government met them and the centre was run under the auspices of the International Organisation for Migration. The issue of the Convention is irrelevant for the purposes of running the detention centre given that the UNHCR were involved, given that the Australian government set the conditions and given that the Nauru Government met those conditions.

JOURNALIST: inaudible…..during the election. Some might see that as actually siding with the opposition…

JULIE BISHOP: Excuse me, doctor. Let me make this point; next week there is a meeting of the Pacific Islands Forum. All of the relevant nations in the Pacific will be there, including East Timor as a special observer, representatives from the Government of Nauru will be there but Australia is not sending either the Prime Minister or the Foreign Minister to the Pacific Islands Forum. Now this is unprecedented. In 1998 and 2007 when the Pacific Islands Forum coincided with a Federal Election, Alexander Downer, as Foreign Minister of Australia represented Australia’s national interest at that Forum, underscoring our commitment to the Forum and to the nations that are part of it. Foreign Minister Smith or Prime Minister Gillard has an ideal opportunity to discuss the issue of an offshore processing centre in Vanuatu at the forum with representatives of Nauru. East Timor will also be there and if its to be a regional offshore processing centre, according to the Government, why would you miss the opportunity to meet with the nations of the region in one place at the Pacific Islands Forum. The Government is running away from the solution because it cannot be trusted with border protection. This is all a fig-leaf on the part of the government and Julia Gillard’s statements about Nauru are manifestly wrong; her refusal to talk to the people who clearly can provide a solution indicates that she cannot be trusted on this issue.

JOURNALIST: Are you concerned about the conditions that the asylum seekers were treated in Nauru?

JULIE BISHOP: The Australian government was satisfied that the conditions that we had required had been adhered to and the people of Vanuatu (sic) had been very generous in assisting Australia in this regard and I want to thank Dr Keke for making it clear that his government is prepared to assist Australia. We are partners in the Pacific and we will work closely with Nauru and look forward to working closely with Nauru again. And the question has to be asked why won’t Julia Gillard even pay the respect due to the Nauru Government who are offering to find a solution to a problem, and yet she insists that negotiations are under way with East Timor who do not want an offshore processing centre; whose parliament has resolved not to enter into negotiations ; whose Deputy Prime Minister has said that the Australian Government is not negotiating with anyone and when the Australian negotiating team apparently arrived in East Timor the one person who is charged with the authority to negotiate President Ramos Horta, was in Shanghai. Now this makes the Government‘s position a laughing stock and it should be revealed as such.

JOURNALIST: inaudible

JULIE BISHOP: No, I meant Vanuatu – that’s where the Pacific Islands Forum will be held. Mr Smith should go to Vanuatu, there is no excuse and if he’s too terrified of losing seats , particularly his seat in Western Australia, he should put the national interest first and attend the Pacific Islands Forum in Vanuatu where the representatives of the Nauru Government and other governments in the Pacific will be present.

JOURNALIST: inaudible

JULIE BISHOP: This is not a stunt. Dr Keke is in Australia. He’s not here at my invitation.

DR KIEREN KEKE: Can I just respond to that. We appreciate the perception that this may have but I want to make it clear. We have not taken any sides; we’re not getting involved in Australian political issues. This has been discussed in Australia publicly for quite a long time and we’ve been approached many times earlier for comment and we’ve said we’re not entering the discussion. At that time it was being discussed very clearly domestically in Australia. In recent times that has changed as the discussion has moved to looking at an offshore centre. As that discussion progressed to an offshore centre we thought it appropriate to say we are willing to discuss that concept of an offshore centre.

JOURNALIST: inaudible

DR KIEREN KEKE: I’m in transit in Brisbane today.

JOURNALIST: inaudible

DR KIEREN KEKE: Primarily we have an excellent relationship with Australia. Australia assists us immensely and we always look to reciprocate when requested. There’s different ways that we can do that. We obviously don’t have the economic prowess that Australia has to provide that kind of assistance, but when issues like this arise, these are ways that small countries like Nauru can reciprocate for the long standing assistance that we receive from Australia.

JOURNALIST: inaudible

DR KIEREN KEKE: There’s certainly widespread support amongst Nauruan people. The experience that we had in hosting the facility earlier on was really a very positive one for us and the Nauruan people and public are supportive of this.

JOURNALIST: How many jobs will this create for Nauru?

DR KIEREN KEKE: I’m not sure exactly how many jobs it will create. It would really depend on the arrangements in terms of how Australia would like to operate this facility. We’re clearly open to hosting it; we’re clearly open to being involved in a co-operative arrangement with the management of it.

JOURNALIST: inaudible

DR KIEREN KEKE: It certainly would have some input to the economy, but Nauru’s situation now is markedly different to what it was in 2001 where this was seen as a major economic boost for Nauru. For us at the moment, Australia provides us with ongoing significant assistance and that is regardless of whether we host a centre or not.

SCOTT MORRISON: Can I thank Dr Keke, because we’ve got flights to catch and so we’re going to have to wrap this up. I might hand over to Julie to thank Dr Keke.

JULIE BISHOP: Dr Keke thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule, we know you are in transit, to meet with Scott and to discuss this issue with me. We appreciate the willingness of the Nauru Government to give assistance to Australia at this time and we acknowledge that you are not taking a partisan position, we respect that and thank you for continuing the good will that does exist and I can assure you will continue to exist between the people of Australia and the people of Nauru. We do have a problem in this country and I admire the way that Nauru is prepared and willing to be part of the solution for Australia. And we also want to thank you for being involved in this in the pat and the Australian government and the people of Australia do thank you for your willingness to be part of it again. Best of luck at the Pacific Islands Forum next week I wish I were there, but perhaps another time.

DR KIEREN KEKE: Thank you all.

[end]

Media Release : Labor spin on pull factors shows Gillard can't be trusted on boats

Mon, 26 Jul 2010 14:00:00 GMT

Reports today that advice was provided to the Labor Government that their high approval rates for asylum seekers arriving illegally by boat were acting as a ‘major pull factor’ show once again that Julia Gillard can’t be trusted to stop illegal boat arrivals, Shadow Minister for Immigration and Citizenship, Scott Morrison said today.

“Ever since Labor’s policies were changed and the resulting boats arrived in ever increasing numbers, government ministers, including the current Prime Minister vehemently denied their soft border protection policies acted as pull factors for people smugglers but the Labor spin has been exposed,” Mr Morrison said.

“Labor must now tell the truth and release the advice they received that their policies were acting as a pull factor for illegal boat arrivals,” he said.

“This is yet another reason why the Australian people can’t trust Julia Gillard to stop the boats. Whether it is failing to even acknowledge the pull factors of her failed policies or her never never East Timor processing centre, Julia Gillard simply doesn’t believe boat arrivals are a problem and isn’t serious about a solution.

“This is a problem that this government created. It is their policy of tick and flick on the permanently overcrowded Christmas Island which has helped people smugglers sell their product and send out record numbers of people on dangerous journeys on leaky boats for profit.

“This is also why the Coalition announced a policy presuming against protection status for someone who has thrown their documentation away.

“Only a Coalition Government will tighten up procedures for illegal boat arrivals, will get tough at sea and make sure solutions like offshore processing are in place.

“As our discussions with the Government and Opposition of Nauru over the last 48 hours have shown, offshore processing on Nauru is absolutely possible and if Julia Gillard was serious about stopping the boats she would simply pick up the phone to the government of Nauru and get on with it,” Mr Morrison said.

Media Release : Coalition holds talks with Nauru on offshore processing

Mon, 26 Jul 2010 14:00:00 GMT

The Coalition has welcomed the opportunity to have preliminary and informal discussions today with the Foreign Minister for Nauru, Dr Kieren Keke in Brisbane to discuss the potential for reopening the Australian offshore processing centre on Nauru.

The meeting follows initial contact with the President of Nauru, who encouraged further discussion and was pleased for the Foreign Minister to meet with the Coalition today.

There is a clear willingness on the part of the caretaker Government in Nauru to hold formal discussions with the Australian Government and the Coalition will take up the opportunity immediately if elected on August 21.

Dr Keke confirmed today that the current President of Nauru has the power to conclude an agreement with Australia under their Constitution with the Government operating in caretaker mode. If Julia Gillard had bothered to talk to Nauru she would understand this.

In addition, unlike in East Timor, Nauru has the relevant legislation in place to enable the operation of a refugee processing centre.

Dr Keke indicated at the meeting he would be pleased for the Coalition to visit Nauru in the weeks ahead to inspect the facilities and hold further informal discussions.

The Coalition can also confirm there is strong support for reopening the processing centre from the Opposition party in Nauru.

In recognition of the political situation in Nauru the Coalition met yesterday with Opposition Leader and former President Hon Ludwig Scotty, who indicated they would welcome the reopening of the centre.

While the Coalition does not consider that being a signatory to the Refugee Convention is a precondition for hosting the processing centre, both the Government and Opposition have indicated their willingness to consider the matter.

Julia Gillard has run out of excuses to not pick up the phone and talk to the Government of Nauru if she is serious about establishing an offshore processing centre in a third country.

The truth is Julia Gillard and Labor are only interested in never never solutions on offshore processing and illegal boat arrivals that get them past the election.

Labor have no genuine commitment to take real action on addressing the unprecedented arrival of illegal boats to Australia.

Only the Coalition has the demonstrated resolve, commitment and policy to address the unprecedented rate of illegal boat arrivals that have occurred as a result of Labor's failed policy.

Media Release : Labor all talk on population says Coalition

Sun, 25 Jul 2010 14:00:00 GMT

Labor's refusal to make commitments on future levels of immigration demonstrates they are all talk on population policy, Shadow Minister for Immigration and Citizenship, Scott Morrison said today.

“After a week of talking, Labor continues to refuse to tell Australians what their policy is on immigration and population growth,” Mr Morrison said.

“Julia Gillard and Tony Burke yesterday used private forecasts by BIS Shrapnel as a substitute for announcing their own policy, claiming that they were reducing the immigration intake,” he said.

“Talking about someone else’s forecasts does not make it policy. If Labor have official figures that support BIS Shrapnel's analysis, based on their policy settings, they should release them and commit to them. Otherwise these are just more hollow words from a hollow PM.

“They also need to tell the truth about what the BIS Shrapnel forecasts actually say.

“What they didn't say is that these same forecasts project that net overseas migration levels will increase to more than 220,000 by 2014 and keep rising to 250,000 the following year.

“If Labor wishes to claim BIS Shrapnel's forecasts as policy, they must also sign up to the increases, just 4 years from now, contained in these forecasts that will create the Big Australia, they say they reject.

“The truth is Labor does not have a sustainable population policy. Just like on climate change, all they have announced is more committees.

“The only figures they made a commitment to are what happened last year. At the 230,000 they claim has been achieved, this will produce a population of more than 40 million by 2050.

“Labor wants to talk about the pressures of a 'big Australia' but refuse to commit to any real action to do anything about it.

“If Labor has a plan to cut net overseas migration in the next term of parliament, let them say so and be accountable for these commitments.

“The Coalition has made a clear commitment to reduce our immigration intake in the next parliament to a level that would put Australia on a growth path below the 36 million projected for 2050.

“We have announced a policy framework beyond the next term that would keep our population growth at sustainable levels.

“The Coalition takes seriously the concerns raised by Australians all around the country that we need to restore confidence in our immigration programme and get our levels of intake under control. We have responded to these concerns with real action that will reduce population pressures in the next term.

“By contrast, Labor keep avoiding the issue. They refuse to give real commitments and perpetuate their election fudge on population,” Mr Morrison said.

Media Release : Real action on sustainable population growth

Sat, 24 Jul 2010 14:00:00 GMT

Australia needs a population that our services can satisfy, our infrastructure can support, our environment can sustain, our society can embrace, and our economy can employ.

Australia's population growth since World War II has helped create the prosperity we now enjoy. Successive waves of post-war migration have expanded our capacity as a nation.

Under the Howard Government, our immigration programme enjoyed support from a majority of Australians who were confident that the programme was fair, competently administered, and delivering benefits to the entire community.

Under Labor, migration-fuelled population growth has caused Australians to become increasingly concerned, and to lose confidence in our broader immigration programme.

The hopeless failure of Labor’s border protection regime has further eroded community trust.

Under Labor, net overseas migration has risen to 300,000 people per year, against a long run average of around 140,000 per year.

At this rate Australia’s population would reach 42.3 million people by 2050, significantly above the earlier Intergenerational Report II (IGR) forecast of 36 million.

As a result, the quality of life for Australians living in our major urban areas today is under great pressure.
Fuelling population growth today must not rob future generations of the quality of life and opportunities we currently enjoy. That is what sustainability is all about.

On the eve of an election, Labor politicians have suddenly started to say they no longer believe in a “big Australia” – while cynically trying to put off any decisions on these issues until after the election.

While Labor may have changed its rhetoric under its new leader, Labor’s policies on immigration or population have not changed.

The Coalition believes it is necessary to ease population growth to deliver more sustainable population levels, based on our present and future capacity, so that our infrastructure, services and environment can catch up.

Unlike Labor, the Coalition’s population and immigration policy is clear.

The Coalition will:

1.   Establish ‘Guard Rails’ for Population Growth

The Coalition will set clear parameters for population growth by tasking a renamed Productivity and Sustainability Commission to advise on population growth bands that it considers are sustainable.

This recommendation will provide a Coalition Government with the expert advice necessary to establish the framework for setting migration programmes.

2.   Take Real Action on Immigration

The Coalition will reduce Australia’s annual rate of population growth from more than 2 per cent under Labor, to our historical long-run average of 1.4 per cent within our first term.

This will require reducing our annual rate of net overseas migration from 298,924 in 2008/09 to no more than 170,000 per year by the end of our first term.

3.   Make a Clear Commitment to Skills Migration and Regional Australia.

The Coalition will ensure that two-thirds of our permanent migration programme will be for the purposes of skilled migration.

A Coalition Government will also quarantine the level of employer nominated skills migration and 457 temporary business visas to at least the levels it inherits. In addition, the Coalition will liberalise arrangements for temporary business visas (457s) subject to clear standards, to make them more accessible to business, especially small businesses, and business in regional areas, with proven skills shortage needs.

To address the skills needs of regional areas and small business, the Coalition will encourage the settlement on either a temporary or permanent basis of new arrivals in regional and rural areas.

States such as Queensland and Western Australia will be afforded a high priority for permanent and temporary skilled visa applications.

A Coalition Government would also seek to resettle more entrants from our refugee and humanitarian programme in regional areas, where these resettlement programmes have proved to be highly successful.

4.   Establish A Clear and Consultative Process to Restore Control

The Coalition will produce a White Paper on immigration that will reframe the structure and composition of Australia’s immigration programme to address the policy challenges of sustainable population growth.

A Discussion Paper will be released by the end of 2010, with a final paper to be completed by the Coalition’s first Budget in May 2011. This will help inform the composition of the 2011-12 migration programme.

Australians want their government to take control of population and immigration policies to restore confidence and ensure our immigration and population levels are sustainable and in the national interest.

The Coalition’s plan for Real Action on Sustainable Population Growth will restore confidence and re-establish consensus on the benefits of our immigration programme.

Media Release : Transcript - Doorstop interview

Tue, 20 Jul 2010 14:00:00 GMT

Subjects: Julia Gillard’s blank page on population policy, Coalition population policy – Towards a productive and sustainable population growth path for Australia, latest illegal boat arrival, Julia Gillard’s failed border protection policies.

EandOE

SCOTT MORRISON:

There are two things I wanted to draw attention to today. The first one, on Sydney radio this morning Julia Gillard made it very clear that her pledges on sustainable population growth are absolutely hollow. She made the ridiculous statement that immigration has nothing to do with curtailing population growth. So she is saying to the people of western Sydney and suburbs all around our cities around the country that she says she wants to do something about sustainable population but she doesn’t want to address the primary reason that population is growing so significantly. Net overseas migration accounts for two thirds of our population growth and any Prime Minister who says they want to do something about getting population growth under control obviously has to address immigration. These are just hollow words from a hollow woman PM, just like we saw from her predecessor. She is once again Kevin Rudd with red hair when it comes to matters of immigration.

The Coalition has outlined a very clear plan on sustainable population growth. We announced that plan in April, we have been advocating and raising this issue for some time. Our plan deals with ensuring that we have a population growth cap set by the independent Productivity Commission which would become the Productivity and Sustainability Commission. You cannot address sustainable population growth unless you address the unsustainable rate of intake in migration that we are having today. Under Labor our population has grown at a rate above 2%, under the Coalition it grew at an average of less than 1.4% for our years in government. Even still we had strong economic growth during those times, we created more than 2 million jobs during those times.

The other issue I wanted to highlight today is of course we have had the first boat to arrive during the campaign. This may be the first boat to arrive in this campaign but it is the 148th boat to arrive on Labor’s watch and the 80th boat to arrive this year where we have had over 4,000 people arrive illegally by boat to Australia in just this calendar year. It proves once again that Labor simply can’t be trusted to fix up the border protection and immigration mess they have created on asylum seekers. Labor have tried to echo the Coalition’s policy but the only reason they are an echo is because they are a completely empty chasm, a void space when it comes to successful policy on border protection and immigration. The Coalition remains committed to implementing our policy, something we have done in government, we have the proven track record, the proven policies and the proven resolve. The government’s policies have clearly failed as this boat proves once again.

QUESTION:

[inaudible]

SCOTT MORRISON:

Well the government’s asylum freeze which was opposed by the Coalition has been a complete failure, just like all of their other policies in this area have been a complete failure. They look for election fixes, they looked for an election fix back in April to try and address this issue for themselves and we have had boats arrive at the continued rate they have always been coming under this government. The Coalition will always and continue to work, if we were in government, with governments around the world to work on intelligence and to ensure that those accepted as refugees in Australia are legitimate refugees so we would welcome the opportunity for intelligence sharing and to work with other agencies around the world to make sure that those who get that very rare chance at resettlement - there are 10.4 million refugees in the world today, less than 1% of them will get a resettlement outcome in the world today - we want to make sure they are fair dinkum and so we will work with all governments around the world, particularly those in our region to ensure our intelligence is good at making those decisions.

QUESTION:

[Inaudible]

SCOTT MORRISON:

What I have said is that the Coalition would work with governments and agencies around the world on intelligence sharing and on information that would help us to make wise decisions and sound decisions on whether people are legitimate refugees.

QUESTION:

Asylum seekers contribute so little to Australia’s immigration intake. Does this really need to be an election issue?

SCOTT MORRISON:

This is an election issue because Labor’s policies have failed. The reason it is a concern to Australians is because the unprecedented rate of illegal boat arrivals to Australia has undermined the integrity of our program. Australians aren’t deciding who gets these rare chances at resettlement, it is the people smugglers who are deciding. Our program is being undermined, the fairness of our process is being undermined. Every person that arrives on one of these boats takes literally the place of another who was waiting for that place in a refugee camp or somewhere else around the world. It is about protecting the fairness of our process. The overall level of refugee and humanitarian intake will be the same under the Coalition and under the government. What will be different is our process will be fairer, won’t encourage people to get on boats and won’t hand our sovereignty to people smugglers.

QUESTION:

But the government has already flagged East Timor as a possible site even though that may not come to fruition. Distinguishing between the Coalition’s and the government’s policies on people smuggling is almost impossible, they are almost identical, again why is this an election issue?

SCOTT MORRISON:

There is a wide chasm between the Coalition and the government on the issues of border protection and immigration policy in relation to asylum seekers. The government’s ideas on offshore processing are thought bubbles, they are never never solutions. They are never going to happen. Firstly it is proposed to be a regional asylum processing centre, not just a centre to deal with those who are seeking to come to Australia which is what the Coalition proposes. Their proposal would set up an asylum seeker magnet within our region drawing people from all around the world, even over and above what has occurred under Labor’s existing failed policies. No wonder the Indonesians are not interested, no wonder the East Timorese aren’t interested. They are looking for some mini Copenhagen-style summit to get a resolution to this issue, they need to address the problem they have created on our own shores. The second area of major difference is we are taking permanent residency off the table, they are leaving that on the table. They are leaving the ‘sugar’ as President Yudhoyono refers to it, on the table which serves as an attractor for people to seek to come to Australia. So there is a major difference but the biggest difference is the Labor Party and this government just don’t believe it. They will never implement it and people know that the Coalition has the proven record and consistency to deliver in this area. That is what we will do.

QUESTION:

Is this just a resurrection of the Tampa crisis? I mean just for the Coalition to stir the election their way?

SCOTT MORRISON:

The Coalition has been talking about the unprecedented rate of illegal boat arrivals since they started coming under the failed policies of this government. The reason this issue is before the Australian people at this election is because Labor’s policies have failed and the evidence of that is turning up in boats at a rate of three per week compared to under the Coalition, once we had our solutions in place, of just three per year. Now that is a policy failure by the government, we have been highlighting that consistently. If they hadn’t failed, we wouldn’t be talking about it.

QUESTION:

What would Australia be like without the immigrant Julia Gillard?

SCOTT MORRISON:

Migration has played an enormous role in Australia’s prosperity, particularly in the post-war period but what is clear now is that population growth is strangling our cities and until we can get infrastructure right, until we can get water solutions right, until we can look after issues of food security and things of this nature then you just can’t continue to go down the path of putting the foot to the floor on population growth through your immigration program as Julia Gillard is doing. Under her settings we will be at more than 40 million by 2050. She has changed nothing, she has set up three committees and changed the Minister’s letterhead. That is not policy, that is an election fix trying to put one over the Australian people, particularly those in the outer suburbs of our cities.

QUESTION:

[inaudible]

SCOTT MORRISON:

We have had our policy out there on population growth and sustainable population since April. When we released our policy on sustainable population growth Julia Gillard and Tony Burke accused us of everything from economic vandalism to racism. Now on the eve of the election they say they agree with us but they haven’t got the policy to back it up.

[end]

Media Release : First boat shows Labor cannot be trusted on illegal boat arrivals

Tue, 20 Jul 2010 14:00:00 GMT

The arrival of the first boat in the campaign proves once again why Labor cannot be trusted on illegal boat arrivals, Shadow Minister for Immigration and Citizenship, Scott Morrison and Shadow Minister for Justice, Customs and Border Protection, Michael Keenan said today.

“It may be the first boat to arrive illegally during the campaign, but it is the 148th to arrive on Labor’s watch, showing once again that Australia has become a soft touch under Labor’s soft policies,” Mr Morrison said.

“Under Labor we are experiencing an unprecedented rate of illegal boat arrivals. We have now had 80 boats arrive illegally in 2010, carrying more than 4,000 people. That already eclipses the total number of arrivals in 1999 and 2000,” he said.

“The arrival of the first boat during the formal election campaign is an undeniable reminder that Labor’s immigration and border protection policies have failed.

“Julia Gillard’s attempt to echo the Coalition on border protection on eve of an election only proves that Labor is vacant space when it comes to immigration and border protection.

“Labor cannot be trusted to clean up the mess they created on illegal boat arrivals.

“The Coalition has a proven track record on stopping the boats. We have clear policies, a clear resolve and strong beliefs to back it up,” he said.

Mr Keenan said: “While Prime Minister Gillard continues to pretend she has a plan to address the weakness Labor has created on our borders, it is impossible for the rest of Australia to ignore their failure as another boat arrives.

“This latest arrival, the fifth to arrive since Ms Gillard announced her ‘plan’, is further evidence that Labor has no control over our borders.

“Sooner or later Ms Gillard will have to step out of her controlled campaign bubble and face facts.

“Even Pakistani immigration officials have admitted that the Federal Government’s six-month freeze on processing new applications from Afghan asylum seekers has failed to stop the flow.

“It seems everyone except the Labor Party knows that this Government has no real solution to stop the boats.

“Only a change in Government will restore our borders,” he said.

Media Release : Gillard's hollow population pledge exposed: Gillard says 'it's not about immigration'

Tue, 20 Jul 2010 14:00:00 GMT

Julia Gillard’s admission that immigration will remain untouched by Labor, proves her claims about sustainable population growth are just hollow words, Shadow Minister for Immigration and Citizenship, Scott Morrison said today.

“This morning when questioned on Sydney radio about her views on a sustainable population, Julia Gillard was asked whether she would reduce overall immigration numbers and by how much: her answer was ‘Well this isn’t about immigration’.

“Julia Gillard’s pledge to people living in cities around the country that she does not believe in a big Australia have been exposed as just words. She does not believe that immigration levels need to be brought under control and is happy to continue along Labor’s merry population path that, on current forecasts, will exceed 40 million by 2050.

“You cannot have a sustainable population policy that ignores two thirds of the reason why our population is growing at an unsustainable rate, and that is immigration.

“During the last Coalition Government, our population grew on average by less than 1.4%, with net migration running at less than 140,000 on average. At the same time our economy continued to expand and more than 2 million jobs were created.

“We cannot allow unchecked population growth to become a lazy substitute for economic policy that must also focus heavily on improving productivity and participation.

“Under Labor, population growth has risen to more than 2%, one of the highest in the developed world, with net migration peaking at 300,000 per year, more than double our long run average.

“The Coalition has committed to be bound to a population growth cap set by the independent Productivity Commission. We will also ensure that two thirds of our permanent migration intake will be for skilled migration. At the same time we will continue to work on the infrastructure, water and cities solutions that increase our capacity to ease the pressure on quality of life.

“This is a clear policy that can give confidence to communities groaning under the weight of population growth that we will ease the pressure.

“Labor has another ‘never never’ policy on population, that will not be released until after the election. They simply do not believe that addressing the current rate of immigration is necessary.

“There is a clear difference between the Coalition and Labor when it comes to sustainable population growth. The Coalition will take real action on immigration and population growth while Labor will continue to talk and set up more committees,” Mr Morrison said.

*** Julia Gillard transcript - Radio 2UE 21-7-10 attached ***

Media Release : Transcript - The Morning Show, Channel 7

Mon, 19 Jul 2010 14:00:00 GMT

EandOE

Subjects: Health, Labor/Greens preference deal, border protection, industrial relations, Julia Gillard, Peter Costello comments

PRESENTER: So what does this all mean for voters? Let’s ask our election panel for this morning. Here on the couch is health minister Nicola Roxon. Good morning to you.

NICOLA ROXON: Good morning.

PRESENTER: And shadow immigration minister Scott Morrison, good morning to you.

SCOTT MORRISON: Good morning

PRESENTER: And Nicola first… Julia Gillard has been keen to talk health reform in Townsville of course, what’s actually been promised?

NICOLA ROXON: Well, what’s been committed is of course we reached an agreement with all of the Premiers except Western Australia in April this year. Now we’re being able to roll out where that money is delivering investments on the ground. So she announced that some of that money is going to Townsville hospital for 15 sub-acute rehabilitation beds. It’s the first time that they’ll ever have rehabilitation beds in Townsville. Similarly I’m going today to Liverpool hospital there’s 42 beds that are going to be built there – acute beds - and 20 mental health beds, so really this is just us getting on with delivering the health reforms that were agreed in April as the States and Territories are implementing and working out where and how, with us, they can spend that money that was agreed to take pressure of our hospitals and build important health services.

PRESENTER: Scott, Labor and the Greens have made a deal on preferences how do the Libs compete with that alliance?

SCOT T MORRISON: Well, firstly, there’s no “shock, horror” about that. But what we want to know is, what the terms of the deal are. What are the compromises that have been made on border protection, asylum seekers, the mining tax, the economy? Will they introduce a carbon price? Is the ETS coming sooner rather than later? These are all the things that go into these sort of discussions and everyone’s been very quiet about what the terms of that deal has been and the government really needs to give people assurances that there won’t be a carbon price and there won’t be an ETS and there won’t be any compromise on asylum seeker policy because the Coalition stands very firm on each and every one of those issues and it a big question mark on the Government.

PRESENTER: If there was one item that you could pluck out of that would it be the asylum seeker issue?

SCOT TMORRISON: Well for me, obviously, in the immigration portfolio I mean we’ve had a consistent position on this for ten years. The Government’s position on this was dreamt up just a couple of weeks ago…but its not just that

NICOLA ROXON: In contrast to your workchoices policy which changes every day.

SCOTT MORRISON: ….carbon price, the ETS, all of these things, the rising cost of living, these were the promises that Labor made prior to the last election that we all remember. The cost of living, pressures on working families, all of that, health reforms were supposed to be delivered by the middle of last year and this government is asking for a new mandate when they haven’t delivered on their old one.

NICOLA ROXON: Well, I think that’s a bizarre sort of spray, but I do particularly love the ten year history, the ten year history of the Liberal Party on Workchoices is very clear which is why Mr Abbott is having such a dreadful time keeping himself in check let alone all of the front benchers. Because everybody lives and breathes Workchoices in the Liberal Party, Julie Bishop can’t get it out of her system even if Mr Abbott says it’s dead. So I just think its going to be a big issue for you. In terms of the Greens issue, Scott was a party official before his life in politics he’s been more intimately involved in these things….

SCOTT MORRISON: I know, that’s why I know what goes into these deals, Nicola…

NICOLA ROXON: As a minister we’re not, it’s a matter that our party officials deal with. I think people expect us to be talking across all of the political parties. We’ve had a dreadful time with the Senate in this term in government with the Senate blocking important reforms into the future. Health reforms, as well as many other areas, so making sure…

SCOTT MORRISON: So what’s the deal with the Greens to give you free passage.

NICOLA ROXON: No, no, no all I’m saying is making sure that we speak sensibly to people who will be able to vote in the Senate is an important thing for us to do and we’re not embarrassed about doing that. Any deals that are made about how preferences are swapped, get done by the party, not by ministers, not by Julia and not by others. And as I say, you were a party official so no doubt you know that from your side of things, but we don’t deal in that….

SCOTT MORRISON: Well I do, Nicola, and I know that all these issues get brought together and the Greens never did a deal with the Coalition because they never liked our policies. They clearly like what you’ve said to them in order to do this deal with the Senate and I think this raises real questions about will there be a carbon price in this next term of government? Where’s the guarantee from the government?

PRESENTER: Let’s just talk about the female politician factor here – you and Julia Gillard,

NICOLA ROXON: I’m really worried about your introduction about them not wanting to drive with their wives…

[Laughter]

SCOTT MORRISON: I’m not touching that Larry ….if you thought my wife should be worried about me….

PRESENTER: If you think this was heated, make sure you clear the studio by the time …(inaudible)

NICOLA ROXON: We were just looking at each other thinking we’re not going near that one!

PRESENTER: But back to the Julia question as a female politician, how do you think that’s playing out in the electorate if at all?

NICOLA ROXON: Umm, look I think some people are definitely going to be interested that it’s the first time we’ve had a female prime minister and I’m very proud that we do and I think she’s doing a great job. But honestly I think that most people are just going to compare Julia and Tony and they’re going to say who’s going to lead a government that’s doing the sorts of things like delivering on health care, that we want, what is someone else going to do, like Tony, bring back Workchoices. I don’t know that gender is going to be a huge issue….

PRESENTER: You say that, but everybody is still talking about this on talkback radio, about the gender issue, what are your thoughts on that, how are you looking at it from your side of the couch.

SCOTT MORRISON: Well I think they’ve changed leaders and changed genders of leaders but the policies are still the same and I think people will make choices based on the policies because it’s the policies that have the impact. The Government and Julia Gillard and everyone can go around and say they feel everyone’s pain but unless they change the policies that are causing that pain, then people won’t support that. To change the policies you’ve got to change the government.

PRESENTER: We’ve run out of time, but should Peter Costello have had a go at Julia’s accent?

SCOTT MORRISON: Well, Peter is a charismatic figure and he’s welcome to be making commentary on the election.

PRESENTER: Yes, but should he have had a go at her?

SCOT T MORRISON: Oh look, I think Julia’s more than capable of dealing with the odd little comment from the sidelines. But can I make this point on Workchoices….

NICOLA ROXON: And we can’t promise we won’t have a go at Tony every now and again.

PRESENTER: Scott, its only day three we need to save some discussion...we’d hate to run out

SCOTT MORRISON: Not a problem, thanks for your time…

PRESENTER: Just before you go guys, I’m building support for this debate for a little later on…are you comfortable with your wife driving…

SCOTT MORRISON: Very, I’m more comfortable than with me…

PRESENTER: Thank you Nicola and Scott.

END

Media Release : Julia Gillard is a 100% policy free zone on population

Mon, 19 Jul 2010 14:00:00 GMT

Julia Gillard continues to mislead Australians about Labor’s absence of policy on Australia’s runaway population, Shadow Minister for Immigration and Citizenship, Scott Morrison said today.

“Julia Gillard and Labor are a 100% policy free zone on controlling Australia’s runaway population,” Mr Morrison said.

“Under Labor’s policies Australia is heading for a population of 42.3 million and Julia Gillard hasn’t changed a thing,” he said.

“The Prime Minister continues to insult Australians by her glib sloganeering on population, yet refuses to release a policy that addresses the very problem she claims to be concerned about.

“Not only do Labor not have a plan on getting population under control, Julia Gillard has admitted they won’t have a plan until after the election.

“The Coalition announced a sustainable population policy in April. We committed to a population growth cap and to task the independent Productivity Commission to set the limit.

“Julia Gillard and Labor accused the Coalition of everything from economic vandalism to racism for suggesting that population growth and immigration should be brought under control.

“Last night on the 7.30 Report, Julia Gillard was exposed as having no form on this issue.

“Yet in May 2002, Julia Gillard told a forum in Melbourne that: ‘Labor believes that you cannot define a vision for this country without answering the fundamental questions – how many Australians will there be and where will they live.’

“In the same month she told a conference on Migration in Sydney that: ‘Labor has committed itself to the development of a formal population policy… this policy will include numerical targets…’

“Eight years later, including almost three in Government and we are still waiting for Labor’s population policy. If Julia Gillard wants to be taken seriously on population she must now answer her own questions.

“The Coalition is committed to a population growth cap. Labor is committed to three committees,” Mr Morrison said.

Media Release : Transcript - Sky News PM Agenda

Sun, 18 Jul 2010 14:00:00 GMT

EandOE

Subjects: opinion polls, population

DAVID SPEERS: One of the big issues dominating the early days of this campaign has been population. Julia Gillard was in Townsville today again talking up her promise to spend $200 million on affordable housing in regional centres. It’s a policy aimed at addressing overcrowding in the big cities she says. Tony Abbott meanwhile was in one of those big cities, Melbourne, where the Abbott and Costello show was rolled out. The former treasurer was there. He gave a killer of a speech; we’ll hear more about that later. On population Tony Abbott says migration has grown far too high under this government and Australians want greater control over their migration and over their borders. And joining me now is the Shadow Minister for Immigration Scott Morrison, Scott Morrison thanks for joining us. Can I ...

SCOTT MORRION: Hi David.

DAVID SPEERS: ... before we get to population and migration, the polls, Labor being 10 points clear in a couple of polls is that a worry?

SCOTT MORRISON: Oh look, it’s very early in the campaign and I think things are moving around quite a bit. Others will commentate on this, I’ll leave that to them but look there’s a long way to go and look, at the end of the day, you know, people are going to make a judgement on policy and at the moment there’s a bit of theatrics around the personalities but as the choice firms up then it’s our hope it will focus on policy.

DAVID SPEERS: And just another political question, the preference deal between the Greens and Labor struck today, ...

SCOTT MORRISON: Shock horror ...

DAVID SPEERS: Yeah ...

SCOTT MORRISON: ... it’s not a big surprise ...

DAVID SPEERS: It’s not a huge surprise ...

SCOTT MORRISON: ... hold the front page.

DAVID SPEERS: ... but does it make life harder for the Coalition in some of those marginal seats?

SCOTT MORRION: Look, I don’t think there’s, that’s changed anything, I mean, effectively what Bob Brown has said is he’s done a deal with the Labor Party to shore themselves up in the Senate and a vote for the Labor, the Greens is a vote for Labor it would seem. But look I think Greens voters are far more independent than that. I think they’ll form their own judgements, they’ll look at the policies, they’ll look at the candidates and they’ll form their own view.

DAVID SPEERS: You think you’ll get a better flow from the Greens than you did the last time around?

SCOTT MORRISON: Oh look, we’ll wait and see and see what happens, I mean the topic we’ll talk about today is sustainable population policy is one that we were talking about some time ago as opposed to the government who are just election eve converts apparently on this and Bob Brown and I were saying the same thing, you know, back in January.

DAVID SPEERS: You and Bob Brown ...

SCOTT MORRISON: There you go.

DAVID SPEERS: ... who (inaudible) there you go.

SCOTT MORRION: An unlikely alliance on that matter.

DAVID SPEERS: Population, Julia Gillard was, as I said, there in Townsville again today. What do you think of her policy? This $200 million fund to encourage more housing developments in regional centres like Townsville to get people out of the big cities?

SCOTT MORRISON: Well, affordable housing has never been so much the challenge for people going into regional areas. The challenge there is economic opportunities and employment and jobs and things of that nature. I mean when you’re taking a net 300,000 people into the country they tend to gravitate into the major cities where there’s services and employment and things of that nature. I mean that’s been the pattern for centuries ...

DAVID SPEERS: But you do have the ...

SCOTT MORRISON: ... let alone the last 20 years.

DAVID SPEERS: ... demand for labour in a lot of these regional centres now with mining and other industries.

SCOTT MORRISON: Sure and people are going there to the extent that there are those opportunities there but so long as we have the pattern of settlement that we have today then the cities will bear the major burden. I don’t think a few houses built in a few regional areas is going to change a century old population movement (inaudible).

DAVID SPEERS: So, you wouldn’t go ahead with that $200 million (inaudible)?

SCOTT MORRISON: Oh look, I’ll leave that for the Shadow Housing Minister to make those sorts of judgements on the policies but I mean that’s not going to change how many people are coming to Australia, it’s not going to change what should be a sustainable rate of population growth and on the government’s policies we’re heading to 42.3 million.

DAVID SPEERS: Well, what is going to change? The population growth is clearly tackling migration numbers. Now, you’ve been saying that 300,000 which is the current net overseas migration figure is too high, what’s a more sustainable figure?

SCOTT MORRISON: Well, just to get to what the intergenerational report was saying for 36 million requires you to get to a 180,000 by 2012 and, of course, there is great unease about that number as to whether it’s sustainable and we don’t believe it is. So, that’s why our policy and the difference between us and the government on this issue is we actually have a policy. We committed ourselves to a population growth cap in April which would be set by the Independent Productivity Commission and so Australians could have confidence that whatever our migration intake was it was set within a sustainable growth path which was independently set.

DAVID SPEERS: But do you give the Productivity Commission an end figure and say we want to avoid hitting 36 million or 40 million. This is the figure we want to hit now you give us the annual cap?

SCOTT MORRISON: What the Productivity Commission will do for us will say that over a five year period they will say that it is sustainable based on our current investments and performance of infrastructure and services, our soils, our food production capacity and things of that nature ...

DAVID SPEERS: Housing stock.

SCOTT MORRISON: ... housing stock, exactly. That you can grown the population in this country at a rate of between X and Y with that Y being an upper cap and we will keep migration in check to ensure that we don’t breach those sustainable growth path patterns. Now, the government has said nothing. They’ve announced three committees and they’ve changed a minister’s letterhead and they’ve said they’ll announce what they’re going to do after the election. Now, that’s, I don’t see how people can trust Labor on that when they won’t tell you what they’re going to do before.

DAVID SPEERS: One of the difficult things that you guys won’t say is when you do get that cap what areas of migration will you cut? If they say here’s the cap, you’ve got to get that migration number down. Do you go for where the big increase has been, skilled migration?

SCOTT MORRISON: Well, it hasn’t been in skilled migration. I think that’s one of the great furphies. I mean 457 visas today in this financial year are the same as they were in about 2007, 2006. The big increase has obviously been the blowout with the student’s rorts and abuses that the Baird Report has shown up fairly consistently.

DAVID SPEERS: So, you will cut the student

SCOTT MORRISON: No, what I’ve said is ...

DAVID SPEERS: ... numbers?

SCOTT MORRISON: ... what I’ve said is, what we will do is our first priority is skilled migration. We’ve given an absolute commitment that two thirds of our permanent migration intake will be skills and we will work from there.

DAVID SPEERS: What about student migration though?

SCOTT MORRISON: Well, that’s another thing that its part of the mix as is the family reunion program and a whole other range of things.

DAVID SPEERS: So, you look all those areas?

SCOTT MORRISON: We’ll look at all those but what we’ve said clearly that our first priority will be to ensure that our permanent intake, two thirds of it will be skilled migration.

DAVID SPEERS: Now, where does the asylum seeker debate fit into this debate because our refugee intake is about 12 or 13,000 a year, it’s a pretty small compared to the overall migration intake and of that people who come by boat is about six or seven thousand this year it seems after the spike in boat arrivals. So, is it fair to link these two issues, these two concerns?

SCOTT MORRISON: Well, the only link, and it’s been others who have been making this link, the link relates to ...

DAVID SPEERS: But Tony Abbott did though?

SCOTT MORRISON: ... Well, no, the link relates to a country and particularly a government’s capacity to generate confidence in the Australian people that their immigration program is being well run. I mean, a community has to feel confident about our level of intake. Under the Howard government while immigration did increase actually the number of people who have had concerns about immigration being too high fell, it halved over that time ...

DAVID SPEERS: So ...

SCOTT MORRISON: ... because people had confidence that we were running a program that was fair, the was robust, the rules were being followed and was under control and that’s what we’ve lost over the last three years.

DAVID SPEERS: But just to break it down, you’re saying the population debate should not really have anything to do with the asylum seeker debate?

SCOTT MORRISON: Oh well, the number of asylum seekers, refugees, humanitarian entrants we take is 13,750, that hasn’t changed, that hasn’t contributed to population increase and either the Coalition or the government aren’t looking to change that figure. The asylum seeker debate is about how people come, about the fairness of that process, about the safety of that process because under Labor’s policies 7,000 people, 147 boats and we believe around 170 people have drowned at sea over the last few years. We’ve got a 561 children who have been detained and virtually all of them came by boat. So, you know, that’s their record.

DAVID SPEERS: Just finally Scott Morrison, we’ve got a question that’s come in from someone on Twitter. They’re asking what the Liberal’s will do to alleviate the housing shortage in Sydney? And I’m wondering here where does the urban density question come in to it? I mean we’ve seen this incredible sprawl of housing in Western Sydney, Western Melbourne. Do politicians need to bite the bullet and tell us we’re going to have to have more urban density?

SCOTT MORRISON: Well, no, look again, that’s outside my portfolio area but I’ll say this, I mean if we continue to pile people into Sydney, into Melbourne, into Brisbane in the way at 300,000 net a year as this government has been doing then we are going to continue to put up pressure on our housing affordability and on our cities, that the bottom line. So, we cannot continue with our foot to the floor on population growth. Also, I mean we can’t, basically saying, the Labor Party’s saying look, trust us to fix the problems in the cities when it’s been state Labor government’s that have had unplanned expansion or lack of expansion of housing across all of our metropolitan cities, they’re the ones who have constrained the ability to deliver affordable housing on the ground and now the federal Labor Party’s going well they stuffed it up be we can fix it. I think Australians will see through that.

DAVID SPEERS: Shadow Immigration Minister Scott Morrison, thank you.

SCOTT MORRISON: Thanks David thanks for your time.

Media Release : Transcript - Channel Ten Morning News

Sun, 18 Jul 2010 14:00:00 GMT

EandOE

Subjects: Coalition border protection policy, Julia Gillard’s never never border protection policy, polls.

NATARSHA BELLING: In regards to your stance, you say you will turn the boats around, exactly how will you achieve that?

SCOTT MORRISON: Well just like we did last time we were in government. It doesn’t happen very often, the circumstances where it can be done is very limited as we have always said but where we get advice that the vessel is seaworthy and secure, where we are able to return it to the port that it left, as we did when we were last in government, and where we have a commitment from that government they won’t return those people to the country from where they are seeking asylum. They are the conditions, that’s what our policy is. Now Julia Gillard supported that policy in 2002, now she thinks it is a slogan. She supported it in 2007 when Kevin Rudd said he would do it before the last election, so the Labor Party is all over the shop on this issue, they have never had a consistent view.

NB: The Prime Minister argues that your border protection policy will not work and she even says that such a strategy only endangers the lives of women and children. Is that fair? We have to be compassionate on some ground don’t we?

SM: Well there is nothing compassionate about Labor’s policies that have seen 7,000 people come on boats. We estimate around 170 people have drowned at sea over the last couple of years and more than 500 children, there are around 561 children being detained in detention centres and they came here by boat. That’s the Labor Party’s policies, that’s their outcome. Our policies are designed to stop the boats. When there are no boats coming there is no one drowning at sea, there are no children in detention, there are no people in motels, there is not $1.1 billion in cost blow outs as a result of Labor’s failed policies. That’s why we have to stop the boats.

NB: This has become such a hotly contested election debate. Some is saying it is all about winning votes and not doing anything real to solve this massive problem. Would you agree with that, it is all about winning votes?

SM: No it is all about fixing Labor’s failed policies. We wouldn’t be having this discussion if Labor hadn’t changed the border protection regime they inherited, we wouldn’t be having this debate if their policies hadn’t led to such a bad outcome. Labor’s policies have failed, we have always had a consistent view on this issue, we have always implemented these views in government. The government is trying to pretend to be something when we know they are something very different. Judge them on their record and their record is 147 boats and more than 7,000 people.

NB: Some are saying there is not much difference now, both the Labor and the Liberal Party have almost moved to central middle ground on this issue. Now we have seen a terrible circumstance in Adelaide with the Liberal candidate attacked for the Liberal Party’s stance on asylum seekers. What are your thoughts about that?

SM: Well I think that is a disgraceful incident as with other incidents we have seen reports of today. The key point here is, who do the Australian people trust to implement these policies? A Coalition that has proven it has done these things in the past to implement our strong beliefs and policies in this area or a government and Julia Gillard seeking to pass off some sort of pre election midnight false conversion on the Australian people. The Australian people know who they can trust on border protection and I am sure that’s what we will see in the coming weeks ahead.

NB: Do you agree with the government’s plans for an offshore refugee processing centre? Do you think that will work?

SM: Well it clearly isn’t going to work on their proposal. They are looking for a regional asylum processing centre. What that will do is act as a magnet for asylum seekers all throughout the world to come and be brought down to the region. What we are suggesting is an offshore processing centre just as we implemented when we were last in government which deals with our problem on our side of the fence, on people seeking to come illegally to Australia. The region doesn’t support what they are taking about. This was all dreamt up one night, a couple of phone calls and we have seen what a disaster it has been since then. They are not serious, it is a never never solution, it is never ever going to happen under Labor.

NB: Super quickly, latest polls show that the Opposition Leader is trailing and that the Liberal Party has got a very tough fight ahead of them. What are your thoughts?

SM: Well we have had two polls and they have both said different things. But this is going to be a contest, we hope, about policy and there has been no change of policy under Julia Gillard, just a change of rhetoric. The Rudd/Gillard Government’s record is there for people to judge and that is what they should be judged on.

END

Media Release : An open letter to Shire residents in Cook

Sun, 18 Jul 2010 14:00:00 GMT

The Shire is a great place to live and raise a family. As your local federal Liberal MP for Cook, I’ve been working hard to keep it that way.

As I move around the Shire, I am encouraged by the strong support I have received as we have worked together on local issues that impact on our local quality of life.

Standing up on issues like rising costs of living for families and older Australians, local infrastructure and service needs, increases in aircraft noise and real action for our local environment have been a key focus.

Through initiatives such as the Cook Community Classic, I have supported our local community clubs and charities, to help them do the job that is so important to us all.

At a national level, I’ve been a strong voice for the Shire.

People in the Shire have always worked hard. We know the value of a dollar, and we know there’s no such thing as free money. The creation of a generation of debt by Labor’s addiction to spending strikes at the heart of the values we hold dear.

The fact that Julia Gillard and Labor are now borrowing one hundred million dollars a day, goes against everything we stand for.

People are constantly expressing their concern to me about Labor’s waste and mismanagement.

Pink batts disasters, school hall rorts and Labor’s border protection failures have proved why Labor cannot be given the second chance they have not earned and Australia cannot afford.

As a senior member of the Coalition team, I will work to restore what has been lost under Labor, to repay Labor’s debt, to stop the waste, to stop Labor’s new taxes and stop the boats.

As your local MP, I will continue to fight on the issues important to our community and be a strong voice for the Shire in Cook. That’s what I stand for.

PS. To learn more please call my office in Cronulla on 9523 0339. You can also follow me on www.facebook.com/scottmorrisonMP or www.twitter.com/scottmorrisonmp

Multimedia : Transcript and audio link - ABC Radio National Breakfast

Sun, 18 Jul 2010 14:00:00 GMT

Click on the link at the bottom of this page to listen to the interview.

EandOE

Subjects: Attacks on political candidates, Newspoll, workplace relations, Coalition population policy – Towards a Productive and Sustainable Population Growth Path for Australia

FRAN KELLY: Just briefly before we get to the issue of immigration, your portfolio area, the Labor candidate in the seat next to yours, the seat of Hughes had his house and campaign office shot at on the weekend. Do you know any more about this?

SCOTT MORRISON: No I don’t I’ve only seen the reports as I’m sure you have and we don’t like to see these things any more than we like to see the fact that a Liberal candidate’s worker in South Australia was assaulted on the campaign trail. So these things are very concerning and have no place in Australian life. I’m sure the police will get to the bottom of it.

FRAN KELLY: Concerning too I’m sure for you today’s Newspoll which has the Coalition trailing significantly but then again Galaxy last night had you at 50/50. Is this a very even contest?

SCOTT MORRISON: Well I have no doubt that the government are the front runner in this. Obviously the Coalition is the underdog, I think that is quite clear but there’s a long way to go and this is a debate and a contest about policy and I think what people are waking up to is that they might have changed leaders but the policies haven’t changed and they might try to echo the Coalition but that is only because they are hollow.

FRAN KELLY: There’s a bit of echoing going on both sides isn’t there? I mean Tony Abbott has now said that he will echo the government, the Labor Government’s industrial relations policies, no change.

SCOTT MORRISON: Well we made it clear that this was a concern at the last election, Labor says they want to move forward but wants to fight the last election campaign. We have made it quite clear all throughout this term, particularly Tony made it clear the other day, that that is an issue that is not an issue and we will work within the framework that this government has put in place.

FRAN KELLY: Yes but for three years or probably six years we have been hearing that unfair dismissal laws are a monkey on small business’ back. You are not going to get that monkey off if you win government?

SCOTT MORRISON: Well I will leave that to Eric Abetz and others to discuss as it is their portfolio but I think what is clear is the Coalition has learnt its lessons from the last election and got the message loud and clear from people. As a modern political party you have to listen to people and I don’t think that’s what this government has done. They haven’t listened to people, they haven’t consulted with people, they say they’ve consulted on the mining tax and spoken to three companies and that’s what we see from this government.

FRAN KELLY: Alright let’s go to issues within your portfolio now. Tony Abbott talking about immigration and population and asylum seeker policy yesterday, he said quote ‘this idea that we owe it to the world to take 180,000 to 300,000 migrants every year is not on’. Now we have had large immigration programs since World War Two. Is that because we owe the world something, surely it is because we needed migrants? It’s not charitable that we take immigration.

SCOTT MORRISON: Well Fran we have never had programs of net overseas migration for 300,000 and there is no universal global right to live in Australia and we can obviously be sovereign in the level of our intake and make sure our intake provides a sustainable population growth past which is what we announced.

FRAN KELLY: And that’s how we assess it every year don’t we? We had a massive surge in migration numbers, a one off surge under the Howard Government for a while there when we needed the skills.

SCOTT MORRISON: We never got anywhere close to the 300,000 this government has peaked at…

FRAN KELLY: No but we got over 180,000.

SCOTT MORRISON: Well 180,000 is a hell of a lot less than 300,000 Fran. What we have got in place now is still the policies that are generating those high levels of net overseas migration which Professor Bob Birrell says will take us to a population of 43.2 million by 2050. So Julia Gillard can echo all she likes but their policy is hollow. Unless they change their policies which they have said they won’t even announce until after the election on this issue then I don’t see how they can be trusted to fix the mess they created.

FRAN KELLY: You could be immigration minister of this country in five weeks time, I’m sure you are mindful of that. How many migrants would Australia take in the first year of an Abbott Government?

SCOTT MORRISON: What we have said is we will set our migration intake based on advice from the independent Productivity Commission who will tell us what is a sustainable rate of population growth. We have committed ourselves to a population cap set by the Productivity Commission and we have committed ourselves that two thirds of our permanent migration intake will be on skills migration. Now they are clear policies, they were announced in April. When we announced these policies Julia Gillard and Tony Burke and a whole bunch of others accused us of everything from economic vandalism to racism. Now they say they agree with us on the eve of an election. I think the public can see through that that it is just election speak.

FRAN KELLY:: What they are saying they agree with are these issues of sustainable population growth, presumedly you support Julia Gillard’s announcement yesterday to put more money into the regions to try to develop more housing options in regional Australia to take some pressure off the big cities.

SCOTT MORRISON: Well this is just moving money around within one initiative Fran. What they need to address…

FRAN KELLY: Is it a good idea though?

SCOTT MORRISON: Well I will let others commentate on that but what they need to do from an immigration point of view is outline whether they plan to be committed on a cap on population growth…

FRAN KELLY: Are you committed to a cap?

SCOTT MORRISON: Yes we are.

FRAN KELLY: What are you capping it at?

SCOTT MORRISON: The independent Productivity Commission would advise that figure Fran…

FRAN KELLY: But it is revised every year as it is now.

SCOTT MORRISON: No it’s not…

FRAN KELLY: Immigration levels are revised.

SCOTT MORRISON: Yes but they are not set within a framework of what is a sustainable rate of population growth. That’s the missing ingredient in how we do these things and that is what we want to change. We want to make sure the Australian people can have confidence that when we set a migration program it has been set to stay within what is a sustainable population growth…

FRAN KELLY: So if they say 300,000 is sustainable you will go with that?

SCOTT MORRISON: Well I don’t think they will say that because I don’t believe it is sustainable. The intergenerational report says 180,000 would get to a population of 36 million so clearly Fran, clearly the levels are going to have to be less that they have been under this government.

FRAN KELLY: Ok both sides seem to agree with that, neither leader supports a big Australia, Scott Morrison thanks very much for joining us.

SCOTT MORRISON: Well Fran can I just make the point they haven’t said they want to cut it…

FRAN KELLY: No, no they said they don’t agree in a big Australia is all I said.

SCOTT MORRISON: They need to stump up with policy.

END

Event : 75th Anniversary Event, Classy Cooking

Sun, 18 Jul 2010 08:44:11 GMT

Event

75th Anniversary Event, Classy Cooking

Thursday 19th August 2010

Time : 19:00:00

Location : The Elephant House Church Hall

Event Details:

Classy Cooking - Rachel Billington demonstrates a scrumptuous, three-course menu.

Supper and Guest speaker, Lisa Williams.
Cost: 30/person OR $174 per table of six.

Ladies, make up a table and join in the fun...

Media Release : Labor's blank page on population can't be trusted

Sat, 17 Jul 2010 14:00:00 GMT

Labor's refusal to release a population policy until after the election shows why Labor cannot be trusted on the unchecked population growth that has occurred under their policies, Shadow Minister for Immigration and Citizenship, Scott Morrison said today.

“Labor wants to talk the talk without walking the walk on population policy,” Mr Morrison said

“While claiming she's concerned about rising population, she refuses to change any of Kevin Rudd's policies that have created the problem,” he said.

“Just like on border protection, Julia Gillard is all talk and no action on unchecked population growth.

“Under Labor's policies net overseas migration has hit 300,000 per year, more than double our historical average.

“Under Labor's policies we are heading for a population of 42.3 million by 2050. That is the big Australia that Julia Gillard's policies are on track to deliver.

“Now they say, 'just trust us on population', rather than tell the Australian people how they will get their unchecked population growth under control.

“Labor has lost control of our immigration programme and cannot be trusted to fix the mess they have created. Their record speaks for itself. No wonder they want to 'move forward', their record on running our migration programme is appalling.

“The Coalition released a sustainable population policy in April [attached]. We announced that our migration programme would be subject to growth guard rails set by the Independent Productivity and Sustainability Commission. We also committed that two thirds of our permanent migration programme would be for skills.

"When we announced this policy Tony Burke and Julia Gillard accused the Coalition of economic vandalism.

"The Coalition has outlined a real action plan with real commitments to ensure sustainable population growth. Julia Gillard has announced three committees and changed Tony Burke's letterhead.

"It's all just more cynical spin from Labor on the eve of an election.

"To change the policy on Labor's unchecked population growth we need to change the Government,” he said.

Media Release : $1.1 billion and counting on Labor's asylum budget blow out

Wed, 14 Jul 2010 14:00:00 GMT

Figures released by the Treasury show that Labor’s failed border protection policies have now cost taxpayers an extra $334 million in new capital expenditure on detention centres, Shadow Minister for Immigration and Citizenship, Scott Morrison said today.

“Yesterday the Government announced another $98 million in new capital expenditure on detention centres. This is in addition to the $236 million in capital and $777 million in extra operational costs, announced since February this year,” Mr Morrison said.

“One third of a billion dollars has now been committed to new projects and the total budget blow out due to Labor’s failed immigration and border protection policies is now in excess of $1.1 billion,” he said.

“The reason for the blow out is simple. We have had 147 illegal boat arrivals carrying more than 7,000 people. There is now more than 4,000 people in detention, including 561 children. There were just four people who had arrived illegally by boat in detention in November 2007.

“This is what Minister Evans should be lamenting, his costly failure of policy, not his failure to re-educate the Australian public about the all knowing wisdom of the Labor Government.

“When you consider that the establishment costs of Nauru were just $80 million and operational expenses were $289 million over 6 years, it shows just how disastrous Labor’s failed policies have been.

“And now Julia Gillard is trying to put one over the Australian people about their ‘never never’ solution of regional processing in East Timor.

“The cost of establishing a centre in East Timor where there is no power or other infrastructure should be causing the Government to reconsider their approach alone. The fact that the East Timorese Parliament and senior members of the Government have denounced the plan make it plain that this is never going to happen.

“The Government of Nauru says they are happy to talk about reopening a centre that is already there, yet Julia Gillard will not talk to them,” he said.

Media Release : 147 illegal boats and over 7,000 people under Labor's failed policies

Tue, 13 Jul 2010 14:00:00 GMT

The arrival of the third illegal boat in as many days means that more than 7,000 people have now arrived illegally by boat under Labor’s failed policies, Shadow Minister for Immigration and Citizenship, Scott Morrison and Shadow Minister for Justice, Customs and Border Protection, Michael Keenan said today.

“This is just the latest in a long series of damning statistics that show the extent to which Labor’s immigration and border protection policies have failed,” Mr Morrison said.

“Under Labor 79 boats have arrived so far this year alone, there are over 4,000 people in immigration detention including 561 children and three boats are arriving every week,” he said.

“As the latest boat arrived, Immigration Minister Chris Evans could today only apologise for his failure to spin Australians on border protection rather than commit to changing Labor’s failed policies to stop the boats.

“This is typical of a government that is more interested in polls and spin than effective policy. Labor needs to understand that it is their policies that have failed, not their message nor their messenger.

“Julia Gillard’s never never Timor election fix continues Labor’s shameless con of Australians on border protection. This is a government that doesn’t get it, to stop the boats you have to take real action, not engage in fantasy stories.

“To change the government’s failed immigration and border protection policies you have to change the government,” he said.

Mr Keenan said: “While the East Timorese debacle cannot be directly linked to this grim hat-trick of arrivals, it does tell the people smugglers everything they need to know about the seriousness with which this government views this issue.

“They have been fooling the Labor Government for the past two years and clearly their judgement of the new Prime Minister is that she is as incompetent as the man she knifed.

“People smugglers respond very quickly to policy changes that damage their ability to sell their product.

“They know that Julia Gillard and Labor will never have the resolve to really tackle them.

“The only thing the people smugglers fear is a change of government in Canberra,” he said.

Media Release : Spin more important than policy says Evans

Tue, 13 Jul 2010 14:00:00 GMT

Immigration Minister Chris Evans has acknowledged that spin is more important than policy to the Gillard Government on border protection, in a frank admission at a Sydney conference today, Shadow Minister for Immigration and Citizenship, Scott Morrison said today.

“Senator Evans has been reported to have said that his greatest failure as Immigration Minister has been his inability to control the immigration debate,” Mr Morrison said.

“This is typical of a government that is more interested in polls and spin, than they are in effective policies and real action,” he said.

“When will Labor learn that it is their failed policies that are the problem, not their inability to spin a problem away?

“It is Labor’s policies that have failed, not their message nor their messenger.

“Chris Evans’ biggest failure has been to wind back the strong border protection regime he inherited from the Coalition Government.

“Under his failed policies 146 illegal boats have arrived, carrying almost 7,000 people and the number of people being detained has risen to the highest on record.

“More than 4,000 people including 561 children are now being detained by the Department of Immigration and Citizenship on Senate Evans’ watch. This compares to just four people being detained who arrived illegally by boat in November 2007.

“The cost to taxpayers of Labor’s failed border protection policies, on Senator Evans’ watch, has blown out by more than one billion dollars and continues to climb. Yet, Senator Evans believes his only mistake has been to not control the debate.

“Labor have already terminated an elected Prime Minister because they believed it was their message not their policies that were the problem.

“The problem is their own failed policies and the refusal to be accountable for these failures.

“Senator Evans has confirmed today that the only way to change the policy is to change the Government.

“Labor needs to stop focusing on their own political interests and start focusing on the national interest.

“We have seen through their bungling of the East Timor ‘never never’ solution, that they were simply looking for an election fix.

“Rather than engage with a government, such as Nauru, that is prepared to take on an off shore processing centre, they continue to make excuses and talk to countries that have rejected them.

“The last thing the Gillard Government wants to actually do is establish an off shore processing centre for asylum seekers. They simply don’t believe it.

“Labor would rather talk than act on border protection. That is why Julia Gillard and Labor cannot be trusted to fix the mess they have created through their own failed policies,” he said.

Media Release : 146th boat as Gillard continues 'never never' policy farce

Mon, 12 Jul 2010 14:00:00 GMT

The arrival of the 146th illegal boat under Labor comes as the President of Nauru made it crystal clear today that he is open to discussions about re-establishing an asylum seeker processing centre in his country, Shadow Minister for Immigration and Citizenship, Scott Morrison and Shadow Minister for Justice, Customs and Border Protection, Michael Keenan said today.

“Nauru President Marcus Stephen said today that his government would consider any request to re-establish a processing centre for asylum seekers but he has yet to get a call from Julia Gillard,” Mr Morrison said.

“The Gillard Government needs to get serious and make immediate contact with the Nauruan Government to commence discussions about re-opening the Nauru processing centre or admit that their suggestion for a regional processing centre is nothing more than a cheap election fix,” he said.

“Julia Gillard's never never Timor solution is no option.

“Meanwhile figures released today further reveal the true extent of Labor’s failed immigration and border protection policies. There are now 4,070 people in immigration detention, the highest detention population on record. This includes 561 children in detention. When the Howard Government left office 21 children were in immigration detention.

“Detention centres are bursting at the seams, motels and mining camps are filling up. Julia Gillard must implement a solution now or admit her fraud on the Australian people.

“Just like the parliament of East Timor, the Coalition has no confidence in Julia Gillard's ability to fix the mess she and Labor have created with their failed border protection announcements,” he said.

Mr Keenan said: “A week has passed since the new Prime Minister announced her so-called plan to stop the boats, and the people smugglers have responded with three more illegal boats with 159 people on board.

“People smugglers are organised and sophisticated criminal networks and they understand the implications of policy changes in Canberra and what impact policy changes will have on their ability to sell their product.

“Clearly, the people smugglers aren’t taking this Prime Minister seriously.

“This Prime Minister is proving to be no more effective at stopping the boats than her predecessor,” he said.

Speech : Guard Rails for Population Growth: Speech to the Committee for Economic Development of Australia

Mon, 12 Jul 2010 14:00:00 GMT

Speech

Guard Rails for Population Growth: Speech to the Committee for Economic Development of Australia

Tuesday 13th July 2010

In November last year I addressed an economics conference at the University of Melbourne organised by the Melbourne Institute and The Australian, where I nominated population growth as the defining policy challenge for my generation of political leaders.

In January this year, after becoming Shadow Minister for Immigration and Citizenship, I said the Coalition was determined to give Australians a debate on the important issues of population growth and immigration.

There has been significant opposition to this suggestion.

Rather than constructive engaging this debate, there has been a concerted effort, including from the Government, to accuse the Coalition of being everything from economic vandals to racists.

I remain convinced that we can have a mature debate about these issues, and more fundamentally that we must have such a debate.

I can think of no other issue, broadly defined, that will have as great an impact on the quality of life we can have as Australians than managing and meeting the needs of an expanding population.

Even more importantly we must reach a new policy consensus to address the future population challenge.

There is no doubt that Australia's population growth since World War II, and the successive waves of post war migration, has been the driving force behind our expanded capacity as a nation and the prosperity that we now enjoy.

Immigration has made the Australia we know today.

Today, 45 per cent of Australians were born overseas or have at least one parent who was.

We are an immigrant nation and there is broad public acceptance, according to research undertaken by Monash University, for the view that bringing immigrants from many different countries makes Australia stronger.

The Department of Immigration estimates that the cumulative impact of the 2008-09 permanent immigration in-take alone over the next 20 years is about $23 billion. By 2011-12 alone the annual contribution will be in excess of $800 million net.

According to Access Economics skilled migrants account for more than 90 per cent of this contribution.

However, past successes do not justify a population blank cheque for the future.

Times have changed.

The Intergenerational report process started by Peter Costello was one of the most forward thinking planning initiatives with respect to population undertaken by an Australian Government. It forced us to confront the realities of our changing demography.

The implications for our economy, national finances, environmental carrying capacity, food production, infrastructure, service needs, housing and overall quality of life have all now been put under the spotlight.

The release of the most recent report, projecting a two thirds increase in our population to 36 million by 2050, caused many of us, not including the Government, to stop and think and question whether this level of growth was sustainable. The Coalition concluded it was not.

At the end of last year our population was growing at the rate of one additional person every 73 seconds.

A population growth rate of 2% per year makes Australia one of the fastest growing populations in the developed world, higher than Canada, the United States, United Kingdom, as well as China, India, Indonesia and Malaysia.

Our rate of growth has not always been this high. It is in fact a very recent phenomenon, driven by even newer forces.

Over the last forty years Australia’s population has grown at around 1.4%.

Of particular resonance was the fact that net overseas migration had risen to an average of more than 300,000 under Labor’s policies, up from just over 200,000 in the last 2 years of the Coalition Government, and a longer run average of around 130,000.

Net overseas migration now accounts for two thirds of population growth, the highest on record, and is primarily responsible for the strong growth in population in recent years.

Given that the Intergenerational report assumes a net overseas migration rate of 180,000 by 2012,I described this level of net overseas migration as unsustainable and was chided by the now current Prime Minister and then Population Minister for saying so.

According to respected demographer Professor Bob Birrell, Australia’s current rate of net overseas migration will deliver a population of 42.3 million people by 2050, significantly above the intergenerational report forecast of 36 million.

Equally, the ABS predicts a ‘Big Australia’ of more than 40 million people under Labor’s current policy settings. This includes a Sydney of 7.3 million – up 64%, a Melbourne of 7.5 million – up 92%, a Brisbane of 4.5 million – up 135% and a Perth of 3.9 million – up 141%.

On current policy settings Australia is sleepwalking into even more congested cities, strained resources, a marginalised environment, over burdened services and unaffordable costs of living. This is the price of getting population policy wrong.

As a result, the Coalition has broken break ranks from the longstanding détente on immigration and population policy.

The Coalition believes Australia needs a population that our services and infrastructure can support, our environment can sustain, our society can embrace and our economy can employ.

While the Government has changed its Leader and apparently it’s tune on population, they have not changed their policies, and have put off any real decisions until after an election.

Kevin Rudd’s Big Australia has become Julia Gillard’s Big Australia, unless she changes Labor’s policies. This is the real test of her commitment on this issue.

Julia Gillard needs to do more than change Tony Burke’s letterhead if she is seeking the community’s trust on population growth in the lead up to this election.

While the Prime Minister now says she will not set a target for population growth, in May 2002, she told the International CEO forum in Melbourne: “Labor believes that you cannot define a vision for this country without answering the fundamental questions – how many Australians will there be and where will they live.

In the same month she told a conference on Migration in Sydney that “Labor has committed itself to the development of a formal population policy .. this policy will include numerical targets .. ”

Eight years later, including almost three in Government and we are still waiting for Labor’s population policy.

Julia Gillard must now answer her own question, how many Australians will there be under Labor’s policies?

While we do not have the resources of Government, the Coalition has made clear commitments in our policy to keep population growth under control, with our guardrails on growth initiative.

If we are to control population growth, then we must set clear parameters for growth.

Under the Coalition we will seek to exert stronger controls over supply, than the open ended demand driven approach that has been followed by the Rudd Gillard Government. These controls will be exercised to ensure we remain within a sustainable growth path.

At the same time we have committed that two thirds of the permanent migration in take will be for skills.

Furthermore the Coalition’s policy will be informed by independent advice on what is sustainable by the Productivity and Sustainability Commission, not a political process run out of a Minister’s office.

Our views on population growth and immigration are driven by the following the understandings and imperatives.

Understanding the purpose of growth

Firstly, we must understand what we are seeking to achieve by growing our population.

As noted earlier, our opportunity to continue to preserve and improve the quality of life we enjoy in Australia is no longer dependent on the populate or perish mindset that conditioned policy makers of earlier generations.

Our future wealth is not a simple function of allowing more people in. It is possible to grow our economy without rates of population growth that diminish liveability and sustainability.

As highlighted in the intergenerational report, of greater significance will be the contribution of improvements in productivity and participation.

We must be careful not to allow population growth to become a lazy substitute for productivity and participation gains in our economy, particularly in the context of an ageing population.

In our sustainable population policy we note that the relationship between population growth and real GDP capita is at best weak and that there is a diversity of international experience on this relationship.

While Treasury and others regularly refer to Japan and Italy as examples of the demographic curse that Australia must avoid, little attention is given to the experiences of Finland, Korea or Canada and many others who have all had lower rates of population growth than Australia, yet have experienced higher rates of growth in GDP per capita.

This has implications for both the volume and composition of our migration programme.

Clearly, volume decisions should not be driven by any desire for a demand surrogate in our economy. However, that does not mean that migration does not play an important economic role.

To the contrary, the primary role for immigration is economic.

It’s role is to supplement the skills and labour needs in our economy, not available from our natural population, necessary to support our economic growth and boost our productivity. This mean the programme must be focussed on skilled migration.

Studies demonstrate a higher cost to our budget for non-skilled migrants, who have higher demand for services and welfare, lower levels of English proficiency and are less likely to find employment and pay tax. Citizenship test results also reveal less understanding of Australian values and culture.

Last time Labor was in Government skilled migration accounted for less than 30 per cent of the migration programme. At the end of the Coalition's term we had reversed the balance, increasing the proportion of skilled migration to almost 70 per cent.

A shift away from skilled migration imposes greater costs on our nation.

The Coalition has committed in our sustainable population policy to having two thirds of our permanent migration programme dedicated to skills migration. But it is not only the permanent programme that is important.

Within the skills component we also are also keen to ensure we maintain a healthy independent skills programme that is we believe is currently being suffocated by the Government’s approach.

Labor’s skills migration program is designed for big business and the unions.

Our independent skills programme is under threat, with Labor presiding over an intentional 25% decline in the number of independent skilled visas since 2007/08.

Labor’s view is that decisions about who comes to this country should be contracted out, and I don’t just mean to people smugglers, which is not the topic of today’s presentation.

No longer does Labor see a proactive role for Government in this area, and would rather contract these decisions to those businesses, typically larger businesses, who have the resources and time to engage in the employer nominated stream.

Research undertaken by the Department of Immigration and Citizenship in 2006, showed that independent skilled migrants were more likely to be working in the nominated occupation than sponsored migrants.

For small business and regional businesses who rely on those who come under the independent skills stream, who take the risk to come to this country with their skills to make a contribution, the pool under Labor is draining year on year.

These were the migrants who built this country. Labor is saying they are no longer needed.

To further undermine the independent skills stream the Government has massacred the Skilled Occupation list, moving it away from occupations that are in demand to a fashion list, drawn up by the unions and big business.

The new SOL has reduced the number of occupations from 408 to 181. More significantly the number of trades occupation has been reduced by more than two thirds, from 142 trades to just 47 trades. Amazingly, the new SOL excludes cooks and chefs that have been a known skills shortage for decades.

The exclusion of Chefs and cooks has been done to deal with the Government’s problems with the rorts and abuses in the student visa programme, where students were training to be chefs as a pathway to permanent residence, but then never worked as chefs. However, this abuse does not change the fact that we still need chefs and cooks. The hospitality sector is rightly outraged, particularly in regional areas, and places like Perth where restaurants simply can’t open more than 3 nights per week.

Temporary 457 business visas have been subjected to significant changes that, combined with economic forces, has led to a 34% reduction so far this year. The largest decline has been in tradespersons, which have fallen by two thirds, while there have been no successful applications in grade 5-7 occupations.

In ten months to the end of May there have been just 30,970 primary applications granted, and a further 29,850 secondary applications.

The average base salary for application granted ranges from $44,100 for Labourers through to 62,600 for tradespersons and $79,900 for professionals, the total remuneration being around 10% higher again. In each case this is higher than the average wages earned in these occupations.

These changes are being particularly felt in regional areas, where skills needs are most pressing and seasonal factors exacerbate the challenge.

Labour agreement only deals for semi skilled 457s, tougher language requirements, artificially inflated wage bars, and increased costs are making 457s a non option for employers in regional areas and also for small business.

The problems faced by regional and small business, highlight the fact that population growth, and related policies, does not impact uniformly across the country.

Our population pressures are felt mainly on the east coast cities of Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, which receive the vast majority of intake.

In regional areas there is a demand for increased population, and at the very least need additional skills and labour to sustain local businesses and make these regions economically viable and sustainable. This includes an appreciation of the seasonal requirements of these areas.

As noted earlier, Labor has declared war on 457s. We need to liberalise 457s for regional areas.

The working holiday maker program is also very important. These workers provide a critical and reliable itinerant work force in regional areas, without largely, adding to Australia’s residential population. There were more than 187,000 WHM visas granted in 2008-09. Only 800 of these failed to comply with the terms of their visas.

Currently Working Holiday Maker visas can apply for an extension of their visas where they undertake work for three months in plant and animal cultivation, fishing and pearling, tree farming and felling and mining and construction. For many years the tourism and hospitality industry has been petitioning for inclusion in this element of the programme and we will be taking a careful look at their case.

We must look to increase the resettlement opportunities in regional areas, including under eth refugee and humanitarian programme, and look to ways to encourage Australians and migrants alike to seek opportunities where they are.

This may require further examination of the conditionality applied to visas, and not just temporary long stay visas.

Visas are a privilege not a right. No one has the absolute right to live in Australia, other than citizens.

Understanding the drivers of growth

We also must have a clear diagnosis of what is now driving our high level of population growth .

The issue of net overseas migration is significant in this debate and is not well understood.

For the past 20 years the dominant contributor to population growth in Australia was natural increase at just over 55%. This has now fallen to almost one third, with net overseas migration now the driving force of population growth.

This change has occurred not because natural increase has been in decline. To the contrary, natural increase will eclipse 160,000 this year, compared to 130,000 in 2006.

The relevance of the upward trend in net overseas migration is that, unlike natural increase, it is more responsive to Government policy settings. More accurately it is a product of those settings.

When we think of migration, we tend to think only of the movements in permanent residents. But our population is made of far more than permanent residents. Our population comprises everyone who is here for more than 12 months, with 12 months defined as have spent 12 out of 16 months in the country.

According to the ABS there are currently 22.3 million people who fit this definition and more than 500,000 people turned up in 2008/09.

Of total permanent and long stay arrivals, less that 35% came as part of our permanent migration programme – family and skills. When New Zealanders, refugees and humanitarian entrants are included this jumped to less than 45%. In 2005/06 these figures comprised 42% and 55% respectively.

So less than half of everyone who adds to our number each year are part of our permanent intake.

Of greater significance is what has been driving the growth in arrivals.

In 2005/06 the number of arrivals was 325,800. Today this has increased by around 180,000 per year. Permanent migration has accounted for less than 25% of this increase. The vast majority has been driven by long stay entrants.

In the most recent 2008-09 edition of Population Flows, the document notes that “Australia had the historically unusual situation of falling GDP growth but a rising net migrant intake. The reason that cuts in skilled migration did not bite was because 2008-09 arrivals of permanent migrants represented less than one fifth of all arrivals. The main factor that drove the record high net migration intake in 2008-09 was the movements in temporary migrants.”

When you analyse the movement in long stay visas, whether they are business, students, or other types of visa, other trends emerge.

It is clear that business 457 visas are not responsible for the population blowout. Between 2006 and 2009, business skilled 457 visas increased by just of 30,000 to just over 100,000 grants, and more recently in the current year have fallen by a similar amount. Today there are 69,510 457 visa holders, compared to 386,520 students.

If you combine 457s with permanent skills visas the increase has been just over 40,000.

The overwhelming increase has been in student visas, up almost 130,000, between 2006 and 2009, to 320,000 grants, with almost two thirds of this increase being in the vocational sector.

These visa holders have become a pipeline for permanent residency, with DEEWR surveys showing that two thirds of final year students consider applying for permanent residency.

Recent inquiries, such as the Baird review, have highlighted the rorts and abuses going on in the student visas system.

The fundamental problem is that our temporary visa system has become demand driven, and hard wired into our permanent intake.

If we are to get our population growth under control then we must start by changing the demand driven culture of long stay visas to a supply orientated model.

We must also seek to shut down the visa factory operations running out of China and India in particular, as we did with unscrupulous operators in the travel market, when we were last in Government.

Building our capacity for growth

Finally we understand that our capacity for population growth is not static. Growth can be good when managed well.

To achieve this requires expanding our capacity both socially and physically to sustainably accommodate any increase in our population.

The immigrant population is too often the first in the firing line when we fear things are not heading in the right direction. Problems with hospitals, roads, public transport, environment, water shortages and even rising house prices are all sheeted home to too much immigration.

I have argued that rising concerns about immigration levels are more about community disaffection with how things are being managed by our governments, than our immigration programme.

However, until issues such as infrastructure and services are better managed, we cannot keep our foot on the population pedal.

Part of managing growth well is to make efforts in areas such as infrastructure, water management, food security, housing affordability, environmental conservation and service delivery that ideally work to increase our capacity for growth.

Our policy for growth will seek to be mindful of these complementary efforts and for the Productivity and Sustainability Commission to keep track of progress in these areas, to ensure our growth targets are adjusted according to our capacity to accommodate growth.

For example, to boost our capacity to accommodate population growth it will be necessary to implement policies that guide and support infrastructure development, particularly in the private sector, who are dominant providers of such infrastructure, as well as with state and local government to prioritise projects that can best support growth and productivity.

If you believe the Rudd- Gillard Government, they are responsible for every brick laid in Australia during the past two and a half years. Yet, the federal government has always been a small player on the national infrastructure stage.

That is why it has been so disappointing that there will be so little to show for the Government’s sending splurge. According to the BCA only one in seven of the Government’s infrastructure stimulus dollars were spent on economic infrastructure – a once in a generation lost opportunity.

Our capacity for growth, particularly with respect to migration, is also conditioned by community confidence in how our immigration programmes are run. The Government’s failures to date to allow the programme to get out of control and in particular their decision to roll back the immigration policies that formed part of the Howard Government’s strong border protection regime, have undermined community confidence, due to the appalling failure of the Rudd-Gillard government’s policies in these areas.

Popular demonising of Coalition immigration policy cannot be reconciled with recent research by Monash University, showing that despite the Coalition doubling the country's annual immigration intake when last in government (that's right, doubling it), we managed to halve community concerns about the level of immigration.

In 1997 we accepted just 73,900 permanent migrants. According to Monash's Andrew Markus, almost two-thirds of Australians at that time (when Pauline Hanson was in the ascendancy) thought our annual immigration intake was too high.

In response the Howard government more than doubled the permanent migration intake over the next decade to a peak of 158,630 and those concerned about immigration fell to just over one-third of the population.

Our focus on selecting migrants who had skills and employing policies that preserved the integrity of our refugee and humanitarian programme, were critical in securing community trust. Under the Rudd Gillard Government this confidence has been lost.

Trust and confidence in our immigration programme and our borders must be restored. This will be the primary goal of the Coalition’s immigration policies should we be elected to Government.

That is why it is our policy for a baseline of community expectation on population growth be established and why the Coalition, as part of our sustainable population policy will task the Productivity and Sustainability Commissions to conduct an extensive inquiry on sustainable population growth, giving Australians from all around the country the opportunity to have their say on Australia’s future population growth.

Media Release : Gillard's 'never never' solution rejected by East Timor as another boat arrives

Sun, 11 Jul 2010 14:00:00 GMT

The rejection of Julia Gillard’s ‘never never’ solution for asylum seekers in East Timor has coincided with yet another boat arrival, Shadow Minister for Immigration and Citizenship, Scott Morrison and Shadow Minister for Justice, Customs and Border Protection, Michael Keenan said today.

“The Parliament of East Timor has rightly delivered a vote of no confidence in Julia Gillard’s attempt to use their country as a prop for an election solution on asylum seekers,” Mr Morrison said.

“The unanimous resolution is another international rebuff for Julia Gillard’s ‘never never’ solution on asylum seekers and her attempt to make policy on the run,” he said.

“East Timor’s rejection shows that only the Coalition can be trusted to deliver real action to stop the unprecedented illegal arrival of 145 boats so far to Australia under Labor’s failed policies.

“The arrival of the 77th boat this year highlights that Julia Gillard cannot spin the boats away. She needs a real solution, not an election solution.

“The circumstances of this arrival, with several passengers transferred for medical treatment after the vessel ran out of fuel, once again highlights the dangers associated with this journey.

“We have now had 3,814 people arrive illegally by boat in 2010. This is the second highest number of arrivals in a calendar year, and it is only July.

“Julia Gillard has sought to treat the people of East Timor as a political convenience in the lead up to an election campaign. Her actions have further undermined our credibility on these important matters in the region and show once again how Labor always put their political interests first,” he said.

Mr Keenan said: “It comes as no surprise that people smugglers don’t take this Labor Government seriously on border protection after the behaviour we have witnessed over the past week.

“No competent government announces a policy that critically depends on co-operation of a foreign government without sitting around the negotiating table first.

“It is time to admit that this farce has now reached the end of the road and it is completely pointless to waste taxpayer’s money and officials’ time by sending them to East Timor to pretend that this idea is anything other than stone dead.

“The Coalition has a sound and proven border protection policy that will stop the boats from arriving.

“Labor have a half baked plan which was designed to grab a headline and get them through the election – not fix the problem they created themselves,” he said.

Media Release : Labor's 'never-never' solution on illegal boat arrivals

Sat, 10 Jul 2010 14:00:00 GMT

Minister Brendan O’Connor has today confirmed what everyone already knew, that the Gillard Labor Government will not have an offshore processing centre in place if re-elected, Federal Shadow Minister for Immigration and Citizenship, Scott Morrison said.

“Labor’s asylum policy has become the ‘never never’ solution, as further contradictions and inconsistencies appear as Labor ministers line up desperately to explain a plan that doesn’t exist,” Mr Morrison said.

“Today, Ministers O’Connor and Smith seemed to contradict each other over the status of discussions with Papua New Guinea while Minister O’Connor refused to guarantee that a Gillard Labor Government would even have their off shore processing centre established within the next term of Government if re-elected,” he said.

“By contrast the Coalition in government established an offshore processing centre operated by the International Organisation for Migration with one third of all processing conducted by the UNHCR within 19 days of the centre being announced by the then Prime Minister.

“The centre on Nauru announced in September was operational before the 2001 election was held in October. That is what real action looks like.

“The centre operated for over six years and the number of illegal boats arriving fell to an average of just three per year.

“The centre was closed by the Labor Government in 2008, along with the abolition of temporary protection visas and their promise made before the 2007 election to be prepared to turn back boats where the circumstances allowed. Today boats are illegally arriving at a rate of three per week.

“This is a Government that found a solution and created a problem.

“Now, in a desperate attempt to resuscitate their plan, they have put our international reputation at risk by verballing the Bali Process set up by the Coalition back in 2002 with Indonesia to address people smuggling and irregular people movement in the region.

“As a co-chair of the Bali Process, the Indonesian Government through their Foreign Minister has expressed great concern on being sideswiped by Labor Ministers who have attempted to verbal the Bali Process to give undeserved credibility to Julia Gillard’s ill considered thought bubble.

“The Bali process has focused on issues such as extradition, information sharing, identification processes and criminalization of people smuggling.

“The Indonesians rightly do not want to see this important and worthy process demeaned by Julia Gillard attempting to use it as a prop for her election quick fix.

“A regional processing centre has never been on the agenda of the Bali Process. As recently as last June officials met and there was no record of any discussion of the need for a regional processing centre.

“The establishment of a regional processing centre runs the significant risk of becoming an asylum magnet for asylum seekers from other parts of the world, in particular the Middle East. No wonder there is little enthusiasm for the proposal.

“Prime Minister Gillard is abusing the Bali Process to suit her own political interest, rather than pursue Australia’s national interest and the region's interest.

“Labor’s bungled asylum policy is damaging our relations with our regional neighbours and has time and again been exposed for what it is – a cynical election fix that has no hope of reality,” Mr Morrison said.

Multimedia : Transcript and video link - Channel Ten - Meet the Press

Sat, 10 Jul 2010 14:00:00 GMT

Subjects: Loss of an Australian Soldier in Afghanistan, Julia Gillard’s failed election fix on illegal boat arrivals, Coalition Sustainable Population Policy, The Coalition's real action plan for restoring integrity and fairness to refugee decision making, UN convention on refugees

PAUL BONGIORNO, PRESENTER: Welcome to 'Meet The Press'. Julia Gillard's pre-election housekeeping continues at pace. It seems to involve sweeping asylum seekers offshore to a near neighbour. The Prime Minister drew fire from all sides and an egg from a protester in Perth. She also managed to scramble her message on just where she'd like to put the boat people.

JULIA GILLARD, PRIME MINISTER (TUESDAY): In recent days I have discussed with President Jose Ramos-Horta of East Timor the possibility of establishing a regional processing centre.

JOSE RAMOS-HORTA, EAST TIMOR PRESIDENT (TUESDAY): I wouldn't want Timor-Leste to become an island prison for displaced persons fleeing depravation, fleeing violence.

SENATOR BOB BROWN, GREENS LEADER (THURSDAY): It's pretty appalling that the leader of the richest nation in our region, Australia, is asking the leaders of the poorest nation in our region, East Timor, to take the burden of processing asylum seekers in our region.

JULIA GILLARD (THURSDAY): But this is a dialogue that will happen more broadly than East Timor. It will happen across the region.

PAUL BONGIORNO: Tony Abbott came up with a suite of harsher measures of his own.

TONY ABBOTT, OPPOSITION LEADER (TUESDAY): You have got to be tough to protect our borders and this Government is not tough enough to do it.

SCOTT MORRISON, SHADOW MINISTER FOR IMMIGRATION (MONDAY): And they now want the Australian people to believe, on the eve of an election, that they've had some sort of midnight conversion.

PAUL BONGIORNO: Shadow Immigration Minister, Scott Morrison is a guest. Later, Human Rights Advocate, Julian Burnside joins us. First, what the Nation's papers are reporting this Sunday, 11 July. The ‘Sun Herald’ leads with "We'll fight on: PM", as Julia Gillard attended the funeral of our 16th casualty in Afghanistan, news came in of our 17th soldier to fall, Private Nathan Bewes of Sydney. The Prime Minister says Australians will understand our continuing determination. The ‘Sunday Age' carries the story "Gillard to pursue East Timor", despite that country's parliament planning to send a strong message of protest about the regional refugee processing centre. The Prime Minister says she is determined to pursue with determination dialogue with that country. The Sunday Telegraph' has “Our economy, the brutal truth”. A reader poll shows 48% of people nationally say they are worse off now than they were at the last election in 2007. And The ‘Sunday Mail' in Adelaide says “Election call at any moment” and reports the Prime Minister slipped quietly into the City of Churches to have a family reunion dinner with her parents and sister last night. Welcome back to the program, Scott Morrison. Good morning, Mr Morrison.

SCOTT MORRISON, SHADOW MINISTER FOR IMMIGRATION: Good morning, Paul.

PAUL BONGIORNO: It's sad news of our 17th casualty in Afghanistan. It does ram home that Afghanistan is a war zone, it's a brutal place. Can you blame Afghanis for fleeing?

SCOTT MORRISON: First of all, let me say the Coalition and I are terribly saddened at the loss of Private Nathan Bewes. This is a terrible tragedy. It’s our 17th tragedy and our thoughts are obviously with the families at this time, but not just with those who have fallen, but those who have people serving there as well. It would just be one of those sick feelings in the stomach this morning and last night and our thoughts are with them. This is true - Afghanistan has 1,500 Australian troops serving there today. We have 400 troops in East Timor serving today, and around the world, sadly, there are places that are falling apart and trying to be put back together again. That's our task and that’s the task that the Coalition is committed to and I think there's a bipartisan commitment to that.

PAUL BONGIORNO: So people fleeing persecution, people fleeing for their lives is something we accept. Australia is a safe haven from that point of view.

SCOTT MORRISON: There's been people fleeing persecution for centuries. In the last 10-15 years that's always been the case. It's always been the case over a longer period of time. It's not a question of whether people are fleeing persecution; it’s a question of what our measures are and how we’re going to allow people to come to this country and who we're going to be able to help. We helped 13,750 people in this program of refugee and humanitarian assistance. We always have. We did under our government and the same is true under this government. It's not a question of whether we want to support refugees, it's a question of how we are going to do that, the process by which you do it, whether it's fair, whether it’s humane, and whether it has the opportunity to ensure we are in control of our own sovereignty.

PAUL BONGIORNO: Election fever is in the air. Within 8-10 weeks, you could be the next Minister for Immigration, you could be in charge of the refugee program. Can we get it straight this morning, is Nauru the offshore detention centre, processing centre, that the Opposition would turn to?

SCOTT MORRISON: As we have always said, we are in Opposition. It's inappropriate for Opposition to seek to have negotiations with other governments. We haven't made the same mistake that Julia Gillard has naively made by going out there.

PAUL BONGIORNO: Can I put it to you this way - on coming to government, will your first priority be to return to the Pacific solution in the same way as John Howard, and reactivate Nauru. It's on offer.

SCOTT MORRISON: I can give this commitment and that is we'll implement the policy that we’ve announced…

PAUL BONGIORNO: Do you have a time line?

SCOTT MORRISON: ..to have offshore processing in a third country and people have the assurance we will do that because that is exactly what we did last time.

PAUL BONGIORNO: Tony Abbott pointed out that Alexander Downer and John Howard were able to do it within nine weeks. Is that your timeline?

SCOTT MORRISON: We'll deal with the timeframe that we’re presented if we’re elected. You make a good point. Within 10 days of John Howard announcing that there'd be offshore processing in a third country, there was a formal agreement with Nauru and he said Nauru at the time and within 19 days of that announcement, it was open for business. That's what you do when you’re in government. That was our record. So we look forward to seeing what this government achieves.

PAUL BONGIORNO: Let's take the Howard template. Would you charge any asylum seekers sent to Nauru for being sent there? In other words, would you charge them rental?

SCOTT MORRISON: No, I am not quite sure what the point is, Paul.

PAUL BONGIORNO: The point was that the Howard Government actually charged asylum seekers to be kept in detention. Is that your intention?

SCOTT MORRISON: We have made no announcement that we'd be restoring the detention debt policy.

PAUL BONGIORNO: So your policy won't be a carbon copy of John Howard's?

SCOTT MORRISON: Our policy has evolved since we were last in government. The other day we announced measures to ensure that those who were known to throw away their documentation on the way here and presumed upon Australia for refugee status would have a presumption against them. We'd actually put tougher controls there to protect the integrity of deciding who is a refugee. Australians want to support refugees, but they want to be sure that those who are given the tick are legitimate refugees and we won't allow a ‘tick and flick’ approach.

PAUL BONGIORNO: There is no doubt deterrence is a key measure for you and indeed for the government here. Isn’t this just a nice word for ‘cruelty’? If we go back to the Nauru situation, the government of Nauru, with the last asylum seeker there had to say to Australia, “we are going to charge you $100,000 a month unless you take this guy off the island”.

SCOTT MORRISON: As I said, detention debt policy is not our policy at this election. There's nothing humane about a policy which has had 600-800 people seek to come here. There’s nothing humane about a policy which has seen 170 people drown on their way here and over 500 children who have made their way here under the Labor Government's policies, and are now being detained.

PAUL BONGIORNO: During the week, Tony Abbott described the boat arrivals of the past three years as an “invasion”. This is how Julia Gillard framed it.

JULIA GILLARD (TUESDAY): Even if all of those who arrived in unauthorised boats were found to be refugees, which they will not, they would still be only 1.6% of all migrants to Australia.

PAUL BONGIORNO: Well Mr Morrison, isn't the Opposition playing on the fears of Australians?

SCOTT MORRISON: No, absolutely not. The Coalition has always had a consistent view and policy on this matter, and a consistent record of implementing policy in this area. We are not new arrivals on this debate. It's always been a strong part of the things we stand for. It's the Government, it’s Julia Gillard who has flipped and flopped. In 2002, she said she supported John Howard's policy of turning back boats.

PAUL BONGIORNO: But he described it as an invasion. Isn’t that playing on people’s fears?

SCOTT MORRISON: No, Tony did not say that. He said ‘you are at risk of putting Australia in a situation where it's open’...

PAUL BONGIORNO: He said peaceful invasion.

SCOTT MORRISON: I know he did… what he said was that we were open to the prospect of that, if you were to go down that path. He never actually used that phrase the way you have outlined it. What he has said is that when you allow others to make decisions about who comes to the country, people smugglers, and those of that nature, then you are removing the sovereignty of Australia's decision and if you are just going to allow people to come and presume upon you, rather than insisting on an orderly process, which is what our policies are about, then you do open yourselves up and that's not something that we want to see happen.

PAUL BONGIORNO: Coming up when we’re joined by the panel - downsizing a big Australia. How do you shrink the population? And one of the lions of the Labor Party, Defence Minister John Faulkner, has announced he is quitting the ministry, but at the Prime Minister’s insistence, he's staying in the Senate.

REPORTER: Would you accept the position of President of the Senate?

SENATOR JOHN FAULKNER, MINISTER FOR DEFENCE (WEDNESDAY): No. (LAUGHTER) Nice of you to offer it, but...

PAUL BONGIORNO: You are on 'Meet The Press', with Shadow Immigration Minister, Scott Morrison and welcome to the panel, Steve Lewis from News Limited and Michelle Grattan from 'The Age'. Good morning, Steve and Michelle. Julia Gillard has ditched aspirations for a ‘big Australia’. She wants a ‘sustainable Australia’ that involves planning for better services and amenities and placing people where they are needed.
JULIA GILLARD (TUESDAY): In many faster growing parts of A
ustralia, like Western Sydney, south-east Queensland, and the growth corridors of my own electorate in Melbourne's west, Wyndham and Melton, people would laugh at you if you told them that population growth was intended to improve living standards. People in these communities are on the front-line of our population increase and they know that bigger isn't necessarily better.

PAUL BONGIORNO: Michelle Grattan.

MICHELLE GRATTAN, THE AGE: Mr Morrison, surely over the decades the Liberals have argued that immigration is one of the mechanisms to getting a stronger and more prosperous Australia. Why are you deserting that fundamentally sound argument at this point?

SCOTT MORRISON: There are three things that deliver it. There is productivity, there’s participation and there is population. The thing that has emerged over recent years is the inadequacy of our infrastructure and services and systems to actually cope with the rate of growth. I mean, we are now at the rate of population growth over the 2%. Now, during the course of our term of government, that was running at about 1.35%, 1.4. At current rates of net overseas migration, we’re going to have a population by 2050 of over 42 million people. We made the observation earlier in the year that that was an unsustainable rate of growth and we were accused by the government, Julia Gillard in particular, of being everything from an economic vandal to racism.

MICHELLE GRATTAN: In that debate earlier in the year, it was a bit confusing as to how much you would cut the immigration intake by. Can you clarify today that point?

SCOTT MORRISON: Well, unlike the Government, who’s just appointed two committees and changed nothing, even with a change of leader on this issue, what we’ve committed to is to stay within what we call “guard rails of population growth” and those guard rails will be a percentage rate of population growth that we can sustainably proceed at and they would be set by the Productivity Commission and we would call it the Productivity and Sustainability Commission and we would commit to keep our program within those guard rails. That’s a clear commitment. What we have from the Government and from Tony Burke and from the Prime Minister is nothing more than two committees and a grab for the TV news. There's no change to their policy. They might change their language, but there is no change to policy under Julia Gillard. We are still heading for 42 million.

STEVE LEWIS, NEWS LIMITED: Mr Morrison, can you this morning outline to us where the cuts would come to the immigration program.

SCOTT MORRISON: It's not possible to do that from Opposition without access to the information the government has access to.

STEVE LEWIS: Don't voters have a right before the election to find out from the Coalition, you made a big deal about this issue, for you to outline where those cuts should come?

SCOTT MORRISON: How large those cuts would need to be, and how wide they would need to be will be a function of any program we would inherit. Let's make a couple of points about what’s been growing the population – it hasn’t been the blowout in skills migration. We have committed to having two-thirds of our permanent immigration program to be on skills migration. Where we’ve had the massive explosion in population has been in the temporary area and as the Government knows, and as Julia Gillard knows, the area where it has blown out largely has been in the student program where the Baird report showed there'd been rorts and abuses.

MICHELLE GRATTAN: That's going down already though.

SCOTT MORRISON: The Government hasn't actually said how much it's going to go down, and what is going to be done with this massive pipeline of students who are now in the system who have been part - many of whom have been part of that sort of dodgy program, that has been allowed to continue under this government and get to record levels. Now, we need to take assessment on that, and we'll make decisions as we go forward. We have committed absolutely to a skilled migration, permanent intake of two-thirds.

PAUL BONGIORNO: During the week, Tony Abbott attacked Kevin Rudd for failing to turn the boats around as promised. His own policy not quite so robust either.

TONY ABBOTT (TUESDAY): Our policy involves turning around boats, where this can safely and practically be done.

STEVE LEWIS: Mr Morrison, isn't it an impractical solution to try to turn the boats around wouldn’t you be putting the lives of Australian sailors and others at risk as well?

SCOTT MORRISON: Let's go over the history. When we were in government, we did it. We did it, the government tells us on seven occasions. On four occasions in 2001, we did it and those boats were taken back and were escorted back within a safe distance of the ports in Indonesia. That had the effect of sending a message to people smugglers, which was incredibly effective, and the person that agreed with it most was Julia Gillard.

MICHELLE GRATTAN: But Indonesia won’t accept those boats now.

SCOTT MORRISON: Look, I wouldn't blame Indonesia for not doing anything with this Government at the moment, when they verbal the Bali process on this mythical regional solution for asylum seekers, when they verbal other nations around the region, when they engage in a process where they say they are going to do something, where they say they are going to talk to Indonesia before they make major announcements.

MICHELLE GRATTAN: Are you saying you could get them to accept those boats?

SCOTT MORRISON: If you address the things on our side of the fence, if you deal with the ‘sugar’ as President Yudhoyono used to refer to it, and he still does I’m sure, of what happens with our policies, permanent residency for example, we need to deal with things on our side of the fence. That is what this Government isn’t doing and that, I think, is really destroying our credibility as having a serious policy that will address the flow of people that are coming through South East Asia.

STEVE LEWIS: Aren't you just tapping in to the politics of fear with this issue, Mr Morrison? Aren’t you really, as many would say the Coalition did in 2001?

SCOTT MORRISON: I notice the government used to accuse us of this as well, but the fact is we’ve always had this view, Steve. We’ve always had this view. We’ve always implemented these views in government. The reason we are talking about this issue today is that this Government's policies have failed. We wouldn't be having this conversation if 144 boats hadn’t turned up. We wouldn't be having this conversation if there were more than 4,000 people in detention in places from Leonora and the re-opening of the Curtin Detention Centre and people in motels and hotels. This Government’s asylum policy has been an absolute train wreck and now they are taking that into the international stage and making themselves look like an embarrassment because they are embarrassing themselves on this issue.

MICHELLE GRATTAN: Do you think there's grounds for overhauling the UN Convention on refugees, which was a post-war convention, dealing with, really, quite different circumstances? Is it still relevant to Australia? Should we be pressing for change?

SCOTT MORRISON: I think the objectives of the convention obviously remain important. You are right, Michelle. This was a document drawn up in a very different world. I think it's important that the Convention does not become a tool for people smugglers to impose their clients on nations in a way that is unhelpful for the way those nations want to run their own immigration programs. We would always be party to a constructive conversation about how the Convention can be improved, because the Convention is an old document. We were in the first batch of signatories, the Menzies Government were the ones who signed it.

PAUL BONGIORNO: Are you tempted to want to ditch it?

SCOTT MORRISON: No, of course not. We are committed to the principles of that Convention and as I said, as a Liberal Government, we were the ones who signed up to it but it is an old document and it was constructed in a very different world. Today's people smugglers are not what they were in the 1950s. Today, they are criminals, they are gangs who are exploiting people, putting their lives at risk and people are drowning at sea and we want to stop it.

PAUL BONGIORNO: Thank you very much for being with us today, Scott Morrison.

Media Release : More policy on the run as Gillard seeks asylum from her own policy

Wed, 07 Jul 2010 14:00:00 GMT

Julia Gillard’s claim that a regional processing centre in East Timor was never part of the plan she announced just two days ago, shows just how desperate she has become as her asylum policy thought bubble has popped, according to Scott Morrison, Shadow Minister for Immigration and Citizenship.

Mr Morrison said “Julia Gillard’s plan has unravelled within days, and she continues to make policy on the run. The regional processing centre is a thought bubble that has well and truly popped.”

“Julia Gillard is now resorting to deceit and cover up in an attempt to paper over the credibility chasm that has opened up for Labor on border protection and asylum seeker policy under her leadership.

“The attempt by the Prime Minister to rewrite two-day old history, hiding behind weasel words that her predecessor was famous for, clearly shows that nothing has changed under Julia Gillard’s leadership.

“The Prime Minister knowingly led everyone in Australia to believe that her plan was to build a new processing centre in East Timor. The only thing missing at the speech was the usual hard hat and luminous vest she uses when she tours her bungled BER programme.

“This episode shows once again that Labor simply can’t be trusted when it comes to implementing policies on border protection and immigration.

“Julia Gillard’s L plate diplomacy and brazen political self interest has been exposed by her bungling of this issue, demonstrating she is just not up to fixing the mess Labor has created on border protection under her and Labor’s policies” he said.

Media Release : Gillard refuses to let facts get in the way of her story, as another boat arrives

Tue, 06 Jul 2010 14:00:00 GMT

Labor's decision to delay the announcement of another illegal boat arrival yesterday afternoon, until more than 24 hours later shows just why Labor can't be trusted when it comes to border protection, Shadow Minister for Immigration and Citizenship, Scott Morrison and Shadow Minister for Justice, Customs and Border Protection, Michael Keenan said today.

“Julia Gillard clearly didn't want any facts to get in the way of her story today. News of the latest illegal boat arrival, on the previous day, was not released until the Prime Minister had left her media visit to Northern Command in Darwin today and after she had completed all interviews for the day,” Mr Morrison said.

“With a backbench Labor marginal seat holder flown all the way from Penrith to Darwin, the Prime Minister posed for photographs with defence force personnel in an attempt her sell her knee jerk announcement on border protection.

“The Prime Minister said she wanted an honest and open debate on asylum seekers, based on the facts, yet within days, these facts were buried for at least 24 hours so as not to spoil her prefabricated story for tonight's TV news.

“Julia Gillard's attempt to manipulate the media today would make even Kevin Rudd blush.

“This cynical exercise shows that Julia Gillard is more interested in stopping bad headlines for the Government than stopping the unprecedented flow of illegal boat arrivals that have occurred under her policies.

“One hundred and forty four boats carrying more than 6,800 people have now arrived on Labor's watch. Labor has no policy to fix the mess that they have created.

“It would be generous to describe Julia Gillard's announcement on border protection as half baked, let alone a policy. The response from East Timor and the absence of any formal proposal or dialogue shows that it's yet to even go in the oven.

“Labor's knee jerk response is just another election eve fix that demonstrates why Labor cannot be trusted to deliver on border protection. No asylum seekers will ever be processed in East Timor under a Gillard Government.

“Only the Coalition has the proven policies and resolve to do what is necessary to stop the unprecedented arrival of boats to Australia,” he said.

Mr Keenan said: “No matter what Labor says, they will always be soft on border protection because they have no conviction on this issue.

“Julia Gillard had an opportunity yesterday to prove to the Australian people that she is committed to ending the horrible trade of people smuggling; instead she resorted to the usual Labor strategy of selling spin over substance.

“As the East Timor option falls apart within 24 hours, Ms Gillard has showed herself to be no different than her predecessor when it comes to protecting Australia’s borders.

“We have made it clear that a Coalition Government will commit to real action, and return to the policies that have worked in the past.

“Today we have proof that only a Coalition Government has the resolve to take real action and stop the boats from coming,” he said.

Media Release : Labor's lies on Nauru betray border desperation by Gillard

Tue, 06 Jul 2010 14:00:00 GMT

Labor’s claim that the UNHCR was not involved in the processing of asylum seekers in Nauru under the Howard Government is a desperate lie, by a desperate Government with no credibility on the issue of offshore processing, Shadow Minister for Immigration and Citizenship, Scott Morrison said today.

“Contrary to claims by Minister Evans, not only was the UNHCR specifically involved in the processing of more than 500 asylum seekers on Nauru, when the centre was first established, including those transferred from the Tampa on the HMAS Manoora, but the centre was managed by the International Organisation for Migration,” Mr Morrison said.

“The report for the Senate Select Committee into a Certain Maritime Incident in October 2002, makes clear that as at 16 April 2002, 525 people on Nauru were being processed by the UNHCR and that processes adopted on Nauru by the UNHCR and by the Australian Government were essentially the same processes ,” he said.

“In evidence to the Committee Mr Robert Illingworth, Assistant Secretary, Onshore Protection, DIMIA, advised that: ‘the Australian processing arrangements have been modelled very closely on the arrangements that the UNHCR follows in Nauru and elsewhere in the world, and we have liaised closely with the UNHCR in refining those arrangements to ensure that is the case.’

“Julia Gillard and Labor do not know what they believe when it comes to addressing the mess they have created by rolling back the Coalition’s strong border protection regime.

“This morning Labor Parliamentary Secretary Jason Clare said Labor and the Coalition’s policies were 95% the same, yet was contradicted minutes later by the Minister for Immigration and Citizenship, Senator Evans, claiming a world of difference.

“The real difference between Labor and the Coalition on border protection is that Julia Gillard can simply not be trusted to implement any policy on asylum seekers, especially the knee jerk response announced yesterday with no detail, no process and no support.

“Labor is looking for a political solution, not a pacific solution, nor any solution that will actually address the unprecedented arrival of illegal boats under their failed policies.

“By contrast, the Coalition has had a consistent and proven record on implementing strong policies that deal with illegal boat arrivals, including the establishment of off shore processing in a third country, that continued for more than six years.

“Julia Gillard’s off shore processing announcement survived barely six hours, before being undermined by a senior member of the Government in East Timor, and the New Zealand Prime Minister who had clearly been verballed by a desperate PM, looking for cover.

“Julia Gillard’s claim that she would establish off shore processing in East Timor is as hollow as the claim made by Kevin Rudd when he said he would turn the boats back, the day before the last election.

“Under Labor, the processing of asylum seekers in another country is even less likely than the Gillard Government achieving a budget surplus.

“Minister Evans claims a facility will not be up and running until 2011. You can rest assured that under Labor it will not be up and running at all” he said.

Media Release : Transcript - MTR 1377 Steve Price program

Mon, 05 Jul 2010 14:00:00 GMT

EandOE

Subjects: Coalition border protection policy, Julia Gillard’s border protection policy failures

STEVE PRICE:

Morning to you.

SCOTT MORRISON:

Good morning, Steve. Good morning, Andrew.

ANDREW BOLT:

Good morning, Scott.

STEVE PRICE:

This has become an auction between you and the government over who can be tougher on refugees, has it?

SCOTT MORRISON:

No, I don’t think… I think Andrew just put his finger on it. I mean, these are just common sense policies. We’ve always had strong views on this and more importantly we’ve implemented them in government unlike the Labor Party whose policies have [inaudible]…

STEVE PRICE:

But you’ve been a little unwilling to re-embrace those tough measures all through this debate.

SCOTT MORRISON:

No, not at all. I mean, we announced all through the year a whole series of measures…

STEVE PRICE:

Well, you’ve stepped back from offshore processing…

SCOTT MORRISON:

No, we haven’t.

STEVE PRICE:

You’ve stepped back from temporary visas and then you changed your mind.

ANDREW BOLT:

No, no, they stepped back until Scott became the Immigration spokesperson.

STEVE PRICE:

Correct. I mean, you can’t talk in isolation, I mean, the Coalition’s been there out of power since 2007…

ANDREW BOLT:

No, it is true, Scott, isn’t it, that initially you guys, the immediate, you were so shocked at the defeat last time that there was a mood to run away from a lot of what had got you in fact four election wins in a row.

STEVE PRICE:

Correct. Don’t let’s rewrite history, please.

ANDREW BOLT:

Right? And now you’ve found your mojo again, right?

SCOTT MORRISON:

Well, I don’t know… if you want to describe it that way you can. But the point is we never walked away from offshore processing. Temporary protection visas [inaudible]…

STEVE PRICE:

I asked your leader over and over again whether you would reintroduce offshore processing if you were to win office and he wouldn’t answer the question.

ANDREW BOLT:

Which leader was that?

STEVE PRICE:

Tony Abbott, Malcolm Turnbull, all of them.

SCOTT MORRISON:

We have a right to decide when we’re actually going to announce policies as well, in advance of an election, and we have done that over the course of this year and our commitments to these things go back over 10 years, so I think the Australian people can have a lot of confidence that when we announce we’re going to do this we will do this because we’ve done it before and it’s had the desired result. But in this case, I mean, Andrew mentioned before, it happened with the Sri Lankans, of those 147 that had documentation, the balance, there were 492 people who have come via Indonesia and have been on a plane through some other party of their journey, so of those who had had documentation at one point in time only a third had it by the time they got to the gate, and…

STEVE PRICE:

Now, why would two thirds have dumped their documentation, do you think, Scott?

SCOTT MORRISON:

Well, I think there’s a couple of reasons. One is that there are some people who just deliberately don’t want you to know who they are. Others have been told to do it by people smugglers for the same reason, but regardless it’s not the way that, you know, you seek the support of another country for protection. I mean…

STEVE PRICE:

So, what will happen to someone now who arrives without documentation?

SCOTT MORRISON:

Well, the assessors will have to make a judgement whether they believe that they have had documentation in the past and their experienced at doing this, that’s why they can find out the root that they’ve taken and they can form an assessment.

ANDREW BOLT:

Well, you’d have to assume from a start if they’ve come from Indonesia they must have had documentation up to the point that they got there. Now, what do you do with these people?

STEVE PRICE:

They become non-persons.

SCOTT MORRISON:

What we say is that there’ll be a presumption against them getting refugee status so they better have some other absolutely rock solid way of proving who they are, but if we believe that they’ve discarded their documentation, well, you know, to quote the Labor party, no ticket no start.

ANDREW BOLT:
What does it mean then?

SCOTT MORRISON:

Well, it means that their refugee status would be rejected.

STEVE PRICE:

Yeah, but what happens to them? Physically, what happens to them?

SCOTT MORRISON:

They’ll be returned.

STEVE PRICE:

Where?

SCOTT MORRISON:

To Sri Lanka or to Afghanistan or to whatever country they come from.

STEVE PRICE:

But, if they’ve got no documentation how do you know where to send them back to?

SCOTT MORRISON:

Well, I think you can determine which country they’re from, but that doesn’t mean that you know who they are.

ANDREW BOLT:

That’s going to be very hard though isn’t it, returning them back to Afghanistan without a deal from Afghanistan to accept them?

SCOTT MORRISON:

No, I mean they’re Afghan citizens, they’re Sir Lankan citizens, they’ll be returned to those countries…

STEVE PRICE:

What if you’re a Sri Lankan whose been living in Iraq who decides to come to Australia…
ANDREW BOLT:

A Sri Lankan living in Iraq?

STEVE PRICE:

Who knows, I mean you don’t know if someone doesn’t have any…well, I mean, I’m not being funny…

SCOTT MORRISON:

There are a lot of Afghans living in Iran and Pakistan.

STEVE PRICE:

That’s right. I’m being funny about this, Scott. If you’ve got no proof of where they came from or where they were born where they were living it’s a pretty hard task to send them back to somewhere.

SCOTT MORRISON:

But, that’s what we’ve been doing for a decade. In fact, one of the problems we’ve got at the moment is this Government isn’t sending anyone back. They announced yesterday that they’re going to send people back whose asylum claims have been rejected, well, so they should and why haven’t they been and why are there 120 people still sitting in Villawood who the Prime Minister said when he was the Prime Minister that they were on their way home and they’re still sitting there clogged up in appeals and now some of them are taking us to the High Court. This is the stuff we’ve got to put a stop to, we’ve got to re-set the equation and ensure that if someone wants to come then they’ve got to stump with their documentation, if for good reason they don’t have it, well, that happens and we understand that but there are a large number who are fronting up without documentation, throwing it away, and expecting to be accepted and we’re saying ‘no’.

ANDREW BOLT:

Scott, I was just interested, the timing of your policy announcement. Obviously, you’re trying to gazump Julia Gillard, you knew that she was going to try to do something about it today, maybe tomorrow. Don’t you take a risk here, that when you announce things like this, I actually think your thing about no passport, no stay make sense. Aren’t you worried that she’s just going to say ‘yep I’ll tick off on that too and besides, here’s mine’?

SCOTT MORRISON:

Well she’s welcome to adopt our policies but the problem is the Australian people I don’t will have any confidence that she’ll ever implement any of them. I mean, that’s what we’ve seen across a whole raft of things, from pink batts to BER, this government is not good at implementing policies and when it comes to border protection, I just don’t believe their false midnight conversion on the eve of an election.

STEVE PRICE:

Well The Age says today that she’ll use a UN report saying it’s now safe in Sri Lanka to send Sri Lankans back. Now, can you see a left wing Labor Prime Minister loading up a jet with Sri Lankans and sending it back to Colombo?

SCOTT MORRISON:

Well she should. That’s her job.

STEVE PRICE:

So you think she’ll do that, do you?

SCOTT MORRISON:

Whether she will or not we’ll see but she should. That’s what our policy would be to do and that’s what she should be doing and I want to know why they haven’t been doing it.

ANDREW BOLT:

I think what also need to be said, too, is it must be made clear that the policies that Julia Gillard will be changing are the policies she herself designed as immigration spokesperson previously to the then Labor opposition. I mean, she has said as recently as the other day that ‘I was the substantive author of a policy paper which become Labor’s policy’. I think it’s going to be a real fudge if she’s allowed to disguise this as her policy as opposed to the last Rudd policy.

SCOTT MORRISON:

I think that’s right, Andrew. She is the architect, she’s the developer, she’s the builder, she’s the owner, she’s the operator of all of these policies and 143 boats don’t lie. You can’t trust Labor on border protection.

STEVE PRICE:

Alright Scott, thanks for your time. I know the announcement’s imminent.

SCOTT MORRISON:

Thanks for your time.

[ends]

Media Release : Transcript - Sky News Agenda

Mon, 05 Jul 2010 14:00:00 GMT

EandOE

Subjects: Coalition border protection policy, Julia Gillard’s border protection policy failures

DAVID SPEERS:
Scott Morrison, can I start with Julia Gillard’s announcement today that she intends to set a regional processing centre and has spoken to East Timor and New Zealand about this. What do you make of that?

SCOTT MORRISON:
Well, it’s just another commitment from Labor to talk, that’s all that happens ever with Labor on border protection, the great big announcement is she’s going to talk and talk and talk. But, all that talking is not going to stop the boats. What’s going to stop the boats is things we do on our side of the fence and in her speech she made it very clear that she didn’t think that things that happen on our side of the fence, the visa that we offer and what we provide here provides an incentive to people smugglers to sell a product. Temporary protection visas are critical to that package and it’s something that they continue to refuse to do. The hard things you’ve got to do, David, in this area are on our side of the fence. The other thing that I found amazing in this speech was just, she was a bit loose with the facts and for example, she said in 2001 it was predominantly Afghans, well, it was actually predominantly Iraqis. But, the other thing she said is that she had this great big long speech about why you can’t turn back the boats. Well, I can quote one person who thinks it was a great idea to turn back the boats, it was Julia Gillard herself if you’ll let me read out what she said in December 2002 – ‘we think that it is important, important from a humanitarian perspective and important from a security perspective that we do everything we can to disrupt people smuggling and we think turning boats around that are seaworthy, that can make the return journey and are in international waters fits with that’. That’s what Julia Gillard said in December 2002 when she stood there with her then leader, Simon Crean, and was talking about these matters. So, who knows what Julia Gillard believes in. She’ll tell anybody what they want to know before an election to get their vote. She’s Kevin Rudd with red hiar when it comes to these issues and people shouldn’t expect that she’ll have any more resolve to implement policies in this area than Kevin Rudd did when he made all those promises before the last election.

DAVID SPEERS:

Nonetheless, she is talking a tougher approach from Kevin Rudd in the sense that she is talking about a regional processing centre and she has spoken to Jose Ramos Horte who she says welcomed a discussion on this idea of a regional processing centre. Do you regard this as a return to the Pacific Solution and if it can be agreed upon would you welcome it?

SCOTT MORRISON:

I just said, it is all talk, David, frankly. It’s just some talk and that’s all we’re going to see between here and the election…

DAVID SPEERS:
You’re talking about a regional processing option as well here, aren’t you? This is part of the Coalition’s policy to go back to third country processing?

SCOTT MORRISON:
David, it is our policy and what’s more when we were in government we implemented that policy and Australians know that when we say we’ll, we will do it. This Government…

DAVID SPEERS:

So, you must welcome what she’s today about this because it goes….

SCOTT MORRISON:

I just don’t believe it will happen. I just don’t believe the Labor Government will follow through with anything they promise on these matters because their heart isn’t in it. They walk every side of the street, they try to appeal to every element of the constituency in this area but they need to form a clear view and actually get the resolve to follow through. And the Australian people know that.

DAVID SPEERS:

But is she on the right track with this idea of regional processing?

SCOTT MORRISON:

I’ll let others make the judgement about that. What I know is that our policies are proven, we put them in place, and Julia Gillard can talk from here to election day but what she won’t have going to election day is any track record of performance. 143 boats don’t lie. You cannot trust Labor to either implement these solutions or address the things on our side of the border, particularly the visas that are offered which still offer permanent residency for those that get on boats, and the measures we announced today, David, to ensure the integrity in the decision making process.

DAVID SPEERS:

Let’s get to those things you’ve announced today. Firstly, that there will be, you will deny refugee status to asylum seekers who you presume have destroyed their identification documents. You said in fact this morning “no card, no entry”. So, is it simply if they don’t have documents, you presume they were destroyed and you turn them back?

SCOTT MORRISON:

No, no, it’s not that. Where the assessors have a reasonable view that they have deliberately destroyed their documentation then we will presume against refugee and that is…

DAVID SPEERS:

But how do you make that presumption, how do you, if they don’t have documents is that the automatic presumption?

SCOTT MORRISON:

No. I’ll give you an example. In 2009, of all of the Sri Lankans that came up until about the end of 2009, there was about 760-odd or thereabouts, two thirds of those had actually come via plane on the way here. So, to do that you need to have documentation to get on a plane. Now, only one in five of them at the end of the day when they presented themselves actually had documentation, and assessors through the course of their interviews are able to get a picture of what has taken place, and our message is that documentation is important, it defines your identity, it enables us to make a wise judgement and a clear judgement about your case and we think it’s only fair that that has to be in place and for those who choose to discard it, well, we’ll presume against you.

DAVID SPEERS:

This was looked at by a Senate committee back in 2004 when the Howard government was in power. It was decided against because it was apparently not in line with UN conventions, that people can arrive and have many good reasons why they don’t have documents, so if it wasn’t a good idea back then, why is it a good idea now?

SCOTT MORRISON:

Well, I think there’s a bit of a furphy that’s been put out today. This provision, which enables us to do this, is still in the Act, it’s right there in black and white in Section 91. It is a provision in the Act that enables the demand to be made to present documentation…

DAVID SPEERS:

So, why do you need to change anything? If it’s there now, what do you need to change?

SCOTT MORRISON:

Well, what we’re saying is we will direct on this basis that where there is a reasonable view that someone has discarded their documentation then we will take the step of presuming against refugee status determination. It creates the power to do that but you have to have a policy then that acts on that power and that’s what we would do. We would actually act, David, and that’s the point. We have a track record of action and we have a track record of results which the Labor Government doesn’t have and so, as I say, they can talk ‘til they’re blue in the face but at the end of the day, the Australian people know who they can trust to actually implement policies in this area that are effective.

DAVID SPEERS:

I want to quickly go through the other elements you’ve announced. Secondly, increasing ministerial oversight to give the minister the power to overturn a department’s decision. There’s been a lot of criticism of this today from refuges groups. They’re worried about putting this power into the hands of politicians, essentially, that you already have the department and you have an independent review, these are experts on immigration, they know what they’re doing. Why do you need the minister to be able to step in?

SCOTT MORRISON:

The only decisions that are appealed under our process at present, David, are the nos. so if someone gets a no, they take it to appeal. There is no tension in the court in the system where people are looking at the yeses and we don’t want a ‘tick ands flick’ approach to refugee assessment. Australians are very generous people but we’re not mugs. We don’t want a system where people are able to just to skate through the system and just have their claims put under close scrutiny and that’s why we’ve talked about the documentation issue so we’re simply saying that the Minister would have the authority to call in recommendations from assessors after they’ve made those assessments, but the other thing we’re doing is we’re moving the final decision from those who are making the assessment and we’re putting that in the hands of the department secretary. So there is a removal and an objectivity that then is introduced into how decisions are made because Australians have got to have confidence that those we’re helping are legitimate refugees. Now, everyone says this. They want to help legitimate refugees. What the Coalition is proposing is to ensure we have a better process to ensure people can have that confidence that they are legitimate refugees.

DAVID SPEERS:

And just finally Scott Morrison, you’re also going to trial a system they’re using in Canada where community organisations can sponsor a refugee if they pay for the full cost which presumably would be housing, clothing, education, health, the rest of it. These would be people on top of our annual refugee intake of 13,750?

SCOTT MORRISON:

That’s right. It’d be a bonded system which is how it operates in Canada and there’s over 5,000 people who come into that process these days in Canada and we think that proposal has very great merits. Senator Humphries raised that with us some time ago and we thought it was an excellent idea and we would like to trial it. Australians are generous people and if they’re prepared to want to go over and above what we do with our refugee and humanitarian programme, then we’ll facilitate that. This debate has all been about, David, what’s fair, what’s right. We take 13,750 refugees each year, the Coalition has supported that in practice and in policy and we’re happy to continue to do that but we want to make sure that they’re legitimate refugees and we want to make sure they come through the front door, not through the side door and all we’ve had from the Prime Minister today is just more talk, just like Kevin Rudd.

DAVID SPEERS:

Alright, Shadow Immigration Minister Scott Morrison, thank you.

SCOTT MORRISON:

Thanks a lot, David.

Media Release : Transcript - ABC Lateline

Mon, 05 Jul 2010 14:00:00 GMT

EandOE

Subjects: Coalition border protection policy, Julia Gillard’s border protection policy failures

LEIGH SALES, PRESENTER: The Opposition announced its own asylum seeker policy today. To discuss that and to respond to the Government's plans, I was joined a short time ago in our Sydney studio by the shadow Immigration Minister, Scott Morrison.

Scott Morrison, thank you for coming in.

SCOTT MORRISON, SHADOW IMMIGRATION SPOKESMAN: Thanks, Leigh. It's good to be here.

LEIGH SALES: The Coalition's been calling for a return to offshore processing, so presumably you'd welcome Julia Gillard's announcement today about East Timor?

SCOTT MORRISON: Well what we saw today was just talk. I don't think there was much announced really today at all. It was one line in a speech, there was no detail. Apparently there were a couple of phone calls last night, but there's been no officials process in train, there's been no formal proposals on the table.

This was not unlike what we saw from Kevin Rudd before the last election with the big grand gesture about turning the boats back, and we all know what happened to that. And I think what we're seeing here again is just another desperate prime minister on the eve of election trying to spin a line, but with no substance behind it.

LEIGH SALES: But what about the actual principle? I know you say we don't have the details yet, but surely the principle of offshore processing is the same as what you're calling for?

SCOTT MORRISON: Our policy is to have offshore processing in a third country to deal with Australia's problem. And Australia's problem ...

LEIGH SALES: And that's their policy, isn't it, too?

SCOTT MORRISON: Well, no, their policy is something different to that. What they're looking for is some sort of mini-Copenhagen Summit to set up a regional facility which is going to require the agreement of a whole range of different countries, which, already we've seen tonight, there is real cut doubt being cast over it by those in East Timor.

I mean, to quote Peter Costello, it looks like it's another one of those policies that haven't lasted from lunchtime to Lateline.

LEIGH SALES: You say that the Coalition advocates offshore processing to deal with Australia's problem. We're a wealthy nation; why are we outsourcing the problem to our less affluent neighbours?

SCOTT MORRISON: Well, the cornerstone of why we undertook offshore processing when we were in government was to ensure that our system didn't get bogged down in those endless appeals that had seen people in Australia, in detention, for years. And our system ensured that you had an assessment, you got a yes or you got a no, it was appealed to one case officer, as was the case with the UNHCR all around the world, and if it was a no again, you were sent home.

And there was no further appeals to the courts, there was none of those other things. And as a result, that combined with removing the permanent protection visa carrot and the turning the boats back. And the Prime Minister said today there were seven. Yeah, they did stop in 2003 'cause there weren't too many boats that turned up after 2001. So all of those things combined to actually deal with our problem on our side of the fence.

This government always wants to talk about the problems on the other side of the fence. They need to deal with the problems on our side of the fence.

LEIGH SALES: OK. If you want to return to offshore processing in a location to deal with Australia's problem, where?

SCOTT MORRISON: Well as we've said, Leigh, we're in opposition. Unlike the Government, they're in a position to start saying - to actually have had done something about this.

LEIGH SALES: But for your policy to have meaning, presumably you would have had to do some exploratory work or at least have some thoughts about where would be the logical place to set this up, otherwise your policy is just pie in the sky.

SCOTT MORRISON: Well, no, we have a very reasonable expectation, having spoken to people like Alexander Downer and others who are very aware of the relationships in the region and what's possible and have a high level of confidence that we'll be able to secure an agreement if in government.

LEIGH SALES: And where?

SCOTT MORRISON: Well, as I said, we're not gonna prejudice those discussions by canvassing those before an election. That's not really fair to other governments. They have to deal with the government of the day. And we would, if elected, be a government who could move quickly to start putting in place an arrangement, but ...

LEIGH SALES: Well presumably there's a big centre sitting empty and unoccupied in Nauru.

SCOTT MORRISON: Well, yes, there is; it's still there, but that doesn't necessarily mean that would be the option. We'd keep all options open ...

LEIGH SALES: Including East Timor?

SCOTT MORRISON: ... and we would move to secure something which suited our purposes. But we're not gonna get into the discussion about the places. If elected, we'll proceed with that swiftly.

LEIGH SALES: Would you see East Timor, though, as an option. Do you have any concerns about that as a location in itself?

SCOTT MORRISON: Well, I think it's important to bear in mind that we currently have 400 military personnel in East Timor on a peacekeeping mission.

We also have to bear in mind that what they're proposing here is a regional processing centre. Now that's different to having an offshore processing facility for those who've sought to - just to come to Australia. And if the Government wants to look at improving the processing options for refugees fleeing places, then they really should be looking in places like Iran and Pakistan.

I mean, that's where there are 2.5 million Afghans. What we don't wanna see is some sort of a magnet set up in the region where basically people can make their way to that, knock on the door and say, "Please let me in; I'd like to be assessed," and they've come all the way from Afghanistan.

Our proposal is to have a centre where those who have sought to come illegally to Australia would be processed, and they may or may not end up in Australia, as our policy said.

LEIGH SALES: So how is that any different, though, than what you've just outlined with the Government? They're all centres that people go to to get processed. How is it that yours is more of a deterrent than theirs?

SCOTT MORRISON: Well ours deals the, with the Australian problem. Ours deals the, with the Australian problem. What they're proposing, a.) for a start, I don't believe will ever happen. It's about as likely as seeing a budget surplus from this government. You won't see a asylum seeker processed in East Timor under this government.

LEIGH SALES: OK. The Coalition has also talked about turning back boats when circumstances permit. What would be permissible circumstances?

SCOTT MORRISON: Well as we said in our policy, and I've said many times now, the conditions at sea must be right, the vessel must be seaworthy, the situation must be assessed by those on deck. We also must have an ability to take them back to the port where that host government is and have an assurance that they can be taken back to that port.

LEIGH SALES: So they'd be escorted all the way back to ...

SCOTT MORRISON: Well, what we did when we were in government, they were taken back within a close vicinity of the port and then they made their way under their own steam back to that port. But we also need to have an understanding that they also wouldn't be refiled to the place from which they claim they were fleeing persecution. Now they're the parameters.

LEIGH SALES: So would you have a list - you'd presumably have to have a list of very strict guidelines that maritime authorities would follow on that.

SCOTT MORRISON: Well the most difficult, obviously, are the ones at sea and those assessments have to be taken by those who are in place, but ...

LEIGH SALES: And would you have guidelines for them?

SCOTT MORRISON: Well, they're operational matters which I think would be best guided by those who are operational, and that's something again you can do in government.

LEIGH SALES: But how would they determine that though? Because, OK, it's operational, but it's a policy issue in terms of, well, who is appropriate or not and what boats should be turned around.

SCOTT MORRISON: Well the broad parameters are the ones I've outlined. And if that situation is in place, then the next decision is what takes place at sea.

Now, this occurred when we were in government before, so it can take place, it did take place. And Julia Gillard in 2002 in December when she stood there with her former leader said it was a good idea, that it actually contributed to solving the problem. Yet today, she says it's a slogan. So I honestly don't know what Julia Gillard believes on this issue.

I think she's on every side of the street, and as a result I don't think Australians can really have a great deal of trust that she really believed what she's saying and therefore will implement what she's saying - just like Kevin Rudd.

LEIGH SALES: On the boats-turned-around policy, has Coalition consulted with the Navy and Customs officials and maritime authorities about a possible return to this policy?

SCOTT MORRISON: Well, they're aware of our policy and to the extent we're able to undertake those sort of informal discussion, then, you know, these things take place, but ...

LEIGH SALES: Do you think they'd be happy with it?

SCOTT MORRISON: Look, the fact is we did it in government, Leigh - that's the point. It is able to be done.

LEIGH SALES: But it didn't always go smoothly, though.

SCOTT MORRISON: Well, no, it doesn't. Look, there are no decisions you take in this area of asylum seeker policy that are free of moral burden.

LEIGH SALES: Well let me put to you something that Julia Gillard said today, that you have a potentially catastrophic situation, you're running a great risk when you've got a possibly rickety boat full of desperate people being turned around, sent somewhere that they don't wanna go. That is risky.

SCOTT MORRISON: Well, what is also risky is 6,700 people getting on boats and 143 of them since this government was elected and rolled back the border protection regime - 170 people we believe have drowned at sea, they're all the ones we know about. Now the Prime Minister tried to make a point about this today, about the dangers to human life. Well, you know, if she's is going to go there and make that sort of point, well, she needs to take responsibility for what has occurred under their policies, which has encouraged people to get on these boats.

We have over 500 children being detained today. Now, they got here by boat. And if you're gonna have policies that encourage people to get on boats, then there are going to be tragedies at sea, and as I said, there is no decision you take which is without some sort of moral hazard or risk.

LEIGH SALES: Boat arrivals account for fewer than 1.5 per cent of migrants each year. We're a nation of 22 million people. It's a few thousand people. Isn't the attention that this subject gathers out of proportion?

SCOTT MORRISON: Well, it's not about the volume of people coming. It never has been. Today ...

LEIGH SALES: What's it about then?

SCOTT MORRISON: Well it's about the fairness and integrity of our immigration processes.

LEIGH SALES: But you talk about things like, in the past, we're losing control of our borders.

SCOTT MORRISON: Yes.

LEIGH SALES: That implies that there's a great influx of people coming; it's a miniscule number.

SCOTT MORRISON: What it means is we're losing control of the integrity of our borders and that our decisions about who gets to arrive and in the circumstances are being overridden by criminal people smugglers. I mean, what we announced today was actually the potential for the number of refugees who came, under the private sponsorship scheme that we announced today, that we could actually go above the 13,750 for those who wanted to engage in private sponsorship.

We said we'd increase the proportion of those who came under the overall program that was going to come out of camps and other settlement facilities. The Coalition's always had a policy to support a refugee and humanitarian program. We took 9,000 people out of refugee camps in Thailand. This is something we're very proud of.

LEIGH SALES: Coalition politicians keep saying, "If you want to stop the boats, you have to change the government."

SCOTT MORRISON: That's right.

LEIGH SALES: Isn't that a slogan a little reminiscent of, "Interest rates will always be lower under a Coalition government," something that was proven to be hollow?

SCOTT MORRISON: No. Look, this is about policies that have been in place which are proven and I think the Australian people have a choice to make. They need to make a choice about who they trust to actually implement policies in this area. We've always had a very consistent and very strong policy in this area and the resolve to implement them. That's our record. People may disagree with the policies, but they know these are our policies and this is what we'll do.

LEIGH SALES: But in the same way that external factors influence interest rates, you can't possibly guarantee that interest rates will always be lower under a Coalition government, how can you possibly guarantee that there'll be fewer boats under a Coalition government, because there are all sorts of external factors in the world that could be out of your control? There could be another 9/11 on your watch.

SCOTT MORRISON: Well these things could occur, Leigh, but what we know is this: is global circumstances have not substantially changed for the worse over the last 10 years. In fact the number of global asylum applications between '99 and 2001 was about 55 per cent higher than it is today.

There's always been push factors when it comes to refugee. Sadly, there's always been people who were fleeing persecution. But what has changed is our domestic policies. And the Prime Minister said today, still in denial, that it is what you can do on our side of the fence, the things that we can do with our own policies here that don't have much of an effect.

Now, that's the problem: Labor doesn't think what they do with their own policies here in Australia has an effect on whether people come or not. They simply don't get it.

LEIGH SALES: We heard Julia Gillard today use the phrase "moving Australia forward" many times ...

SCOTT MORRISON: Mmmm. Many times. Many times.

LEIGH SALES: ... in her speech. There are rumours that could be Labor's election campaign slogan. How will the Opposition counter that message?

SCOTT MORRISON: Oh, look, I think what we've been saying all along is that this Prime Minister is all talk. And today we had more talk. And with due deference to redheads, it was Kevin Rudd with red hair today; that's what we saw. The same long-winded speech with no real policy substance in what was said, another glib line for an election and no real substance to back it up.

LEIGH SALES: You're gonna need something a bit sharper than that though, aren't you, to counter "Moving Australia forward"?

SCOTT MORRISON: Oh, look, I'll leave that to those advertising geniuses. I'm the Shadow Minister for Immigration. My focus is the policy, and if people want to change these policies, as we've said, you've gotta change the government because Labor won't change their policies. They'll change their language, they will go out there and they'll wanna feel everybody's pain, but they won't change the policies that are causing it.

LEIGH SALES: Scott Morrison, thank you very much.

SCOTT MORRISON: Thanks, Leigh.

[ends]

Further information: Julian Leembruggen 0419 494 667

Event : Sutherland Symphony Orchestra

Sun, 04 Jul 2010 07:15:18 GMT

Event

Sutherland Symphony Orchestra

Saturday 28th August 2010

Time : 14:30:00

Location : The Elephant House Church, Cronulla

Event Details:

The Sutherland Symphony Orchestra - a special recital
August 28, 2010 performing at 2:30pm in the Church.
Suggested donation of $10.

Enquiries: +61 2 9523 5124 OR office@cronulla.anglican.asn.au

Media Release : 143 illegal boat arrivals don't lie - Labor cannot be trusted on stopping the boats

Sat, 03 Jul 2010 14:00:00 GMT

The illegal arrival of the 75th boat in 2010 and the 143rd on Labor's watch, shows yet again that Labor cannot be trusted when it comes to taking the real action needed to protect our borders, Shadow Minister for Immigration and Citizenship, Scott Morrison and Shadow Minister for Justice, Customs and Border Protection, Michael Keenan said today.

“The illegal arrival of another boat last night carrying 36 people near Christmas Island, once again shows the failure of Labor's soft policies and why they can't be trusted,” Mr Morrison said.

“Julia Gillard is now being dragged kicking and screaming to acknowledge the failures of Labor's border protection policies that has led 6,764 people getting on 143 boats under her Government's policies,” he said.

“Julia Gillard is now only acting to protect Labor’s political interest to get a quick fix before the election, rather than take the real action that is needed to stop the unprecedented arrival of boats, that has reached 75 this year alone, and protect our borders.

“Julia Gillard is trying to stop the bad polls, not the boats. It has taken Labor 143 boats to illegally arrive before even pretending to care.

“By contrast the Coalition's resolve is proven, having reduced illegal boat arrivals to just three per year in Government, backed up by consistent policies and a steadfast commitment on this issue.

“Labor simply cannot be trusted to take the real action needed to fix the mess created by their own soft border protection policies.

“Labor believes the answer rests only in regional solutions. This shows Labor are only prepared to do the easy part of the job.

“Labor must fix the problems on our side of the fence, created by their policies, when they chose to wind back the strong border protection regime inherited from the Coalition.

“That is why the Coalition's solution combines regional action with the tough decisions required on our own polices to stop the boats.

“Unlike Labor and Julia Gillard, the Coalition's plan for real action on border protection contains decisions and policies that we have taken and implemented before. The Coalition and our policies are proven when it comes to border protection.

“We have done it before, we can do it again,” he said.

Mr Keenan said: “Julia Gillard wants to appear tough on border protection but the reality is nothing has changed under her leadership.

“The boats are still coming and unless Ms Gillard reverses the dud Rudd/Gillard policies that are in place, they will continue to come.

“This week the new Prime Minister will announce her stance on border protection. But unless she take real action, not just more spin, Australia will remain an easy target for people smugglers,” he said.

Media Release : Julia Gillard must take real action on Labor's border protection failures

Fri, 02 Jul 2010 14:00:00 GMT

Julia Gillard must restore the strong border protection regime that she abolished if she is serious about addressing the unprecedented rate of illegal boat arrivals to Australia under Labor's failed policies, Shadow Minister for Immigration and Citizenship, Scott Morison said today.

“Following the implementation of the Coalition's full suite of measures in 2001 the number of illegal boat arrivals fell to just three boats and less than fifty people per year,” Mr Morrison said.

“In the twelve weeks since the introduction of Labor's asylum freeze there have been 36 illegal boats carrying more than 1,700 people. That's three boats and more than 140 people per week,” he said.

“Labor's asylum freeze is as ineffective as it is inhumane, forcing people into indefinite detention, while leaving the incentive of permanent residency on the table.

“Abolishing or maintaining the freeze will have no impact on the people smuggling business either way.

“The Coalition will restore the strong border protection regime we had in Government that shut down the people smuggling business to Australia.

“We will reintroduce temporary protection visas, restore off shore processing in another country and be prepared once again to turn boats back where the circumstances allow. This is all in addition to pursuing the regional and international initiatives that were also initiated under the Coalition.

“Under Labor's policies people smugglers earned an estimated $25 million in 2009/10 while Australian taxpayers spent and committed to more than $400 million of additional expenditure to cope with the unprecedented rate of arrivals.

“Under Labor the number of people in detention has skyrocketed from just 4 illegal boat arrivals to more than 3,700. The system is in complete gridlock, with costs rising on a daily basis, including air charters, building new facilities, appeals processes, hotel and motel expenses and even cigarettes.

“Julia Gillard is all talk and no change on stopping the boats. To change Labor's failed border protection policies you need to change the Government,” he said.

Media Release : People smugglers reap super profits as boat 142 arrives

Thu, 01 Jul 2010 14:00:00 GMT

The arrival of the first boat for 2010/11 and the 142nd boat under Labor's failed immigration and border protection policies comes as people smugglers were paid an estimated $25 million in 09/10, Shadow Minister for Immigration and Citizenship, Scott Morrison and Shadow Minister for Justice, Customs and Border Protection, Michael Keenan said today.

“Last financial year, 117 boats illegally arrived carrying more than 5,600 people. This is the highest number of arrivals in a financial year on record,” Mr Morrison said.

“Based on reported costs charged by people smugglers, the Coalition estimates that people smugglers were paid $25 million in the 09/10 financial year,” he said.

“At the same time this year's budget revealed that Australian taxpayers would pay out an additional $405 million in extra costs for offshore asylum seeker management and capital works, including capital commitments incurred last year, to cope with the unprecedented increases in illegal boat arrivals under Labor's soft policies. The real figure will be even greater as the latest update to the budget costs assumed only 4,500 people would arrive.

“The latest boat, carrying 77 people, will deliver people smugglers a sum of more than $350,000. Yet the cost to taxpayers will be around $6.3 million, based on Departmental estimates provided to the Senate earlier this year, based on an average of $81,900 per arrival.

“In May 2009, Labor estimated that only 200 people would arrive illegally by boat in 2009/10. Instead we had over 5,000 arrive. In 2010/11 their budget is based on just 2,000 people arriving. The result will be yet another Labor budget blow out, caused by a Government that is prepared to change their Leader, but refuses to change their soft policies.

“There is no change to Labor's soft policies on immigration and border protection under Julia Gillard. People smugglers will continue to reap the rewards of their criminal business while Australian taxpayers will continue to foot the bill.

“The only way to change the policies to stop the boats, is to change the Government.

“The only message we can send to people smugglers to stop their criminal profits is the election of a Coalition Government.

“The Coalition has outlined a suite of proven measures to stop the boats and end the ascendency of people smugglers under Labor's failed policies which have seen boats illegally arrive at a rate of three a week," he said.

Mr Keenan said: “The Government is more focused on the machinations of the Labor party’s internal hierarchy than protecting Australia’s borders.

“This Labor Government has spent too much time on internal disputes, rather than focusing on issues that matter such as protecting Australia’s borders.

“Julia Gillard will make an announcement on border protection in the coming days and will have an opportunity to choose substance over spin in outlining this Government’s approach to securing our borders.

“The new Prime Minster’s announcement has to be a real policy change that delivers real action, not just another empty attempt to try to paint this Government as tough on border security.

“Otherwise this is just the same old Labor Government that has failed to secure our borders, and overseen record numbers of boats arrive in Australian waters,” he said.

Media Release : Boat 143 fails to arrive, risking the lives of all on board

Wed, 30 Jun 2010 14:00:00 GMT

The foundering of a boat carrying 83 Afghans off the Indonesian coast heading for Australia highlights once again why we need to stop the unprecedented flow of illegal boat arrivals to Australia under Labor’s policies, Shadow Minister for Immigration and Citizenship, Scott Morrison said today.

“The boat, carrying 83 asylum seekers would have been the 143rd boat to illegally arrive in Australia since Labor rolled back the strong border protection regime they inherited from the Coalition, had it not foundered on the way with the passengers lucky to walk away with their lives,” Mr Morrison said.

“There have been reports of more than 170 people having drowned at sea in the past two years on illegal boats to Australia. On the weekend that number almost topped 250 people, as this latest boat got into trouble risking the lives of all on board.

“Of great concern are the reports that there were 12 children and 15 women on board, whose lives were also at risk.

“Under Labor’s polices there are now 508 children being detained by the Department of Immigration and Citizenship. Almost all of these children arrived here on one of these boats.

“When Labor took office there were just 21 children being detained. It is the Coalition’s understanding that none had arrived on boats, as there were only four people in detention at that time who had arrived by boat.

“While these children are not being held in formal detention, due to the change in policy introduced by the Howard Government to remove children from detention centres, these figures show that children are coming here on boats.

“There is nothing humane or compassionate about policies that encourage people to put their lives in the hands of people smugglers and get on these boats.

“Julia Gillard has made no changes to the soft border protection policies that she supported as Deputy Prime Minister.

“As Deputy Prime Minister, Julia Gillard was part of the gang of four that decided to roll back the strong border protection regime she inherited from the Howard Government and to roll over to the passengers on the Oceanic Viking when they were given their special deal from the Rudd/Gillard Government.

“Julia Gillard is all talk and no change when it comes to Labor’s soft border protection policies.

“To change Labor’s soft policies on illegal boat arrivals requires more than a change of Leader, it requires a change of Government.

“The Coalition has the proven policies to stop the unprecedented flow of illegal boat arrivals to Australia and prevent more people putting their lives at risk.

“The Australian people have a clear choice between shutting the door under the Coalition or leaving it open under Labor,” he said.

Media Release : Official figures show Julia Gillard's policies will deliver a Big Australia

Tue, 29 Jun 2010 14:00:00 GMT

New ABS figures on population growth released today show that unless there are changes to the Labor Government’s policies on migration, then a Big Australia will be just as likely under Julia Gillard as it was under Kevin Rudd, Shadow Minister for Immigration and Citizenship, Scott Morrison and Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Infrastructure and Population Policy, Senator Cory Bernardi said today.

“The ABS figures predict a ‘Big Australia’ of more than 40 million people under Labor’s current policy settings. This includes a Sydney of 7.3 million – up 64%, a Melbourne of 7.5 million – up 92%, a Brisbane of 4.5 million – up 135% and a Perth of 3.9 million – up 141%,” Mr Morrison said.

“Kevin Rudd’s Big Australia will become Julia Gillard’s Big Australia, unless she changes Labor’s policies. This is the real test of her commitment on this issue,” he said.

“The ABS forecasts even generously assume a net overseas migration of just 220,000 per year, compared to the current rate under Labor’s policies of more than 270,000, having peaked at 300,000 last year.

“The ABS figures show that net overseas migration under Labor is running at the highest level in at least 20 years, accounting for almost two thirds of population growth. Our long run average population growth over the last 40 years has been 1.4%. Under Labor, this has increased to more than 2%.

“To change the future path of population growth in Australia and avert the impact on the quality of life we enjoy, Julia Gillard needs to do more than change the letterhead on a Minister’s desk, she must change Labor’s policies.

“This is just another example of where Julia Gillard is all talk and no change on these important issues.

“In May 2002, when Julia Gillard was Shadow Minister for Population and Immigration she said: ‘Labor believes that you cannot define a vision for this country without answering the fundamental questions – how many Australians will there be and where will they live.’ [1]

“She also said that same month: ‘Labor has committed itself to the development of a formal population policy ... the policy will include numerical targets ...’ [2]

“Eight years later, including almost three in Government, we are still waiting for Labor’s promised population policy and their promised numerical targets. The Coalition released our sustainable population policy in April.

“Julia Gillard must tell the Australian people what changes she will make to immigration policy before the next election if she is to believed on the issue of population growth,” he said.

Senator Bernardi said: “While the ABS says that Australia’s population is heading for at least 34 million people by 2051, the Government’s own Treasury officials recently confirmed that we are on track for a population of 43.9 million by 2050.

“The Rudd/Gillard Government is set to double our population in the next 40 years, but they have no plan to provide for the needs of our future population. Ms Gillard is choosing to delay critical decisions on this important issue until after an election,” he said.

________________________________________
[1] Julia Gillard MP, Shadow Minister for Population & Immigration, speech to the International CEO Forum, Melbourne 22-5-02
[2] Julia Gillard MP, Shadow Minister for Population & Immigration, speech to the Migration: Benefiting Australia Conference, Sydney 7-5-02

Media Release : Transcript - Doorstop interview

Sun, 27 Jun 2010 14:00:00 GMT

EandOE

Subjects: Coalition population policy, Julia Gillard’s population policy void, opinion polls, Sheikh Mansour

SCOTT MORRISON: It was good to have the opportunity today to outline further the Coalition’s more detailed views on the question of sustainable population growth, it’s something the Coalition has had strong views on for some time. It was the Coalition who in fact broke ranks on this issue in terms of the détente on population and immigration policy, earlier this year we said things were getting out of hand, they needed to be brought under control and there needed to be policies that keep population under control.

Now when we did this we were chided by the now Prime Minister, we were chided by others, we were accused of being everything from racists to economic vandals, well now apparently they say they agree but what we don’t see from the government is any actual policy.

I outlined in my speech today that the Prime Minister when she was the Shadow Minister for Immigration and Population committed Labor to a population policy that set targets. Now the Prime Minister if she is to be taken seriously on this issue must produce targets for what she believes the population will be. That’s her own benchmark, she said that was the condition of a serious commitment to this issue and she said there would be a Labor policy. Now that was nine years ago and we are still waiting.

So unless this was just some glib attempt at grabbing a headline for a day or if it was a genuinely serious policy statement then it needs to be followed up. It needs to be followed up by a clear expression of what will be the population under Julia Gillard’s policies? What will be the rate of net overseas migration under Julia Gillard’s policies? Where will she make the cuts to migration under her policies? These are the questions the Prime Minister needs to answer. She has the full resources of government at her disposal to answer those questions and she is the one who said these were the questions that defined whether you had a serious policy or not. That’s where she stood nine years ago, the question before her today is where she stands today or is she just running around feeling everyone’s pain but not addressing any of the policies that actually contribute to that pain.

QUESTION: Where do you think she should make the cuts to net overseas migration?

SCOTT MORRISON: Well I think in the speech I just outlined I have highlighted where the key areas of growth have been and the areas where we need to get it under control. But unlike the government, we don’t have the resources of Treasury and Immigration and a range of other areas and access to the detailed data. That’s why we have said we would commit to a population growth band to be set by an independent commission, the Productivity and Sustainability Commission and we would set our migration rates to fit within those bands.

QUESTION: Well she said now she doesn’t subscribe to an arbitrary figure whether it is 40 or 36 [million], you must at least welcome that.

SCOTT MORRISON: Well when she changes her policy, when she actually puts in place some action and takes some action then that will be welcomed. All we have at the moment is a glib line for the Sunday news. What we don’t have is any change of policy. Julia Gillard’s policies are Kevin Rudd’s policies. All she has done is change the letterhead of a Minister and Labor thinks that’s all you have to do in this country. They don’t think they have to change any of the policies that they have pursued, all they have to do is change the packaging. Another leader, but the same policies.

QUESTION: If 40 [million] is too much and we are already up over 20 million how many more people can Australia really cope with given the limitations on our water, our food and all the other resources [inaudible]…

SCOTT MORRISON: Well that’s why we would task the Productivity and Sustainability Commission to address those questions for us if we are elected to government. We need to understand what is a sustainable rate of population growth . Now Julia Gillard said you do that by setting a target. She said that nine years ago and we are still waiting for that target from Labor. She is the one who has made the target an issue she is the one who said there should be a target well it’s been nine years Julia and we are still waiting for that target.

QUESTION: Isn’t it a bit rich to hold the government to something that the now Prime Minister said nine years ago when the government was in opposition?

SCOTT MORRISON: Not at all. We are all accountable for the things and policies that we put out there into the public domain. The Prime Minister has sought to suggest that she has a strong view on this issue, well it has been a while since she has actually talked about these issues, the last time in fact she talked about them was to attack the Coalition for having a sustainable population policy. She said we were going to destroy the education sector, she said we were going to destroy the economic interests of business in this country, that was her response to our sustainable population policy. Now she is seeking to provide a very faint echo of what is a substantive position taken by the Coalition, well as a Prime Minister she has to do better than that.

QUESTION: Are you concerned that a change at the top seems to have worked with another poll out today showing a boost for Labor?

SCOTT MORRISON: Well what hasn’t worked are the policies. The policies haven’t changed, the policies continue to wreak havoc around the country and until the Prime Minister changes the policies then the outcomes won’t change. The Australian people are interested in outcomes, they are interested in the growth of their economy, their lifestyle, in their quality of life and that’s what we have been talking about today in terms of having a genuine sustainable population policy. So their policies are failures and unless the government has changed then those policies will continue to deliver failure.

QUESTION: Do you agree with the Immigration Minister’s decision not to intervene in the deportation of Sheikh Mansour?

SCOTT MORRISON: Yes.

QUESTION: Why’s that?

SCOTT MORRISON: Well ASIO has provided their assessment and these are things that enjoy bi-partisan support. They are best placed to make a recommendation or determination in these areas and I have spoken to the Attorney General about the matters in the past and am satisfied that the government is taking the appropriate course of action.

END

Speech : Address to Informa Conference: Australia's Population 2050

Sun, 27 Jun 2010 14:00:00 GMT

Speech

Address to Informa Conference: Australia's Population 2050

Monday 28th June 2010

Address to Informa Conference: Australia’s Population 2050
Marriot Hotel, Sydney June 28, 2010

Scott Morrison MP
Shadow Minister for Immigration and Citizenship

As at the end of last year our population was growing at the rate of one additional person every 73 seconds.

If we repeated our current 2% rate of growth year on year, Australia would have a population of 50 million by 2050.

Our rate of growth has not always been this high. It is in fact a very recent phenomenon, driven by even newer forces.

For the last forty years Australia’s population has grown at around 1.4%.

The successive waves of post war migration added significant value to our economy, our society and our way of life. It has made the Australia we know today.

However, this past success does not justify a population blank cheque for the future.

Times have changed.

The implications for environmental carrying capacity, food production, infrastructure, service needs, housing and overall quality of life are far more dramatic. In short, there is far less margin for error.

All of these issues came in to greater focus when the third intergenerational report was published forecasting a two thirds increase in our population to 36 million by 2050.

The most recent intergenerational report caused many, but not the Government, including the now Prime Minister, to stop and think about just how sustainable this type of growth path was for our country.

The debate also questioned the long running assumption that such growth was always good for the economy, and rightly highlighted the role of productivity and participation as far more significant factors in our future prosperity.

As part of this debate I and others noted that the relationship between population growth and real GDP capita was at best weak and that there was diversity of international experience on the population and economic growth.

While Treasury and others regularly like to refer to the Japans and Italy’s as examples of the demographic curse that Australia must avoid, little attention is given to the experiences of Finland, Korea or Canada and many others who have all had lower rates of population growth than Australia, yet experience higher rates of growth in GDP per capita.

Population growth is a lazy substitute for productivity and participation gains in our economy, particularly in the context of an ageing population, and we must be careful not to be seduced by the argument that our future prosperity is inextricably linked to high population growth. And let’s remember that 2% is high population growth.

As these debates continued it became clear that Australia on current growth settings was sleepwalking into more congested cities, strained resources, a marginalised environment, over burdened services and unaffordable costs of living. This is the price of getting population policy wrong.

For these reasons the Coalition decided to break ranks from the longstanding détente on immigration and population policy and draw attention to the dangers of continuing with the Government’s current immigration policy settings that had seen population growth increase from an average of 1.35% under the Howard Government to a peak so far of 2.1% under the Rudd-Gillard Government.

Given that the Intergenerational report assumes a net overseas migration rate of 180,000 by 2012, down from what was assumed as a current average of just over 240,000, and assumes a population growth of 1.2% and growth, that was running at 2.1%, I made the rather obvious point that a net overseas migration rate of 300,000 per year was unsustainable and needed to be reduced.

At that rate of net overseas migration Australia would have a population of 42.3 million by 2050 according to Professor Bob Birrell.

I argued further that 36 million people should not be accepted as a fait accompli, but should be conditioned by what our infrastructure could support, our environment can sustain and our economy could productively use.

These sentiments were later expressed in the release of the Coalition’s own sustainable population policy.

The response from Labor, including Julia Gillard, and others was to accuse me and the Coalition of everything from racism to economic vandalism.
You will therefore understand my surprise regarding the Prime Minister’s comments yesterday and the absence of any critical assessment of her position.

As recently as last week the Population Minister, as he was then known, was attacking the Coalition to business groups in Canberra saying our policy for sustainable population growth was reckless and damaging.

The Government’s answer to population growth is to change the title of the Minister, and delay any decision until after the next election. This was Kevin Rudd’s position and nothing has changed under Julia Gillard.

Julia Gillard needs to do more than change Tony Burke’s letterhead, if she wants to get serious about the lifestyle and environment destroying impact of unchecked population growth.

If the Prime Minister wishes to engage the population debate then she needs to produce a policy, as the Coalition has done. If she doesn’t support the 36 million target then she must say, given she has the resources of Government, where will she cut the migration programme to get to firstly the 180,000 net overseas migration figure that would produce the 36 million figure in 2050 and then how she will go further.

In May 2002, Julia Gillard told the International CEO forum in Melbourne:

“Labor believes that you cannot define a vision for this country without answering the fundamental questions – how many Australians will there be and where will they live. Labor has committed itself to moving way beyond the Intergenerational Report to defining a formal population policy.”

In the same month she told a conference on Migration in Sydney that “Labor has committed itself to the development of a formal population policy .. this policy will include numerical targets .. ”

Nine years later, including almost three in Government and we are still waiting for Labor’s population policy.

It is not enough for the Prime Minister to continue to engage in a pre-election empathon, talking of how she feels everybody’s pain, yet failing to change the policies that are causing this pain.

Just like on border protection, on population, the Prime Minister is all talk and no change.

For those concerned about the negative impacts of rampant population growth on their quality of life, such as in Western Sydney, South East Queensland or outer Melbourne, they deserve better.

Julia Gillard must now answer her own question, how many Australians will there be under Labor’s policies? What will be the immigration intake under her policies and where will she make the cuts?

Unlike the Coalition, the Prime Minister has the full resources of Government to answer these questions.

While we do not have the resources of Government, the Coalition has made clear commitments in our policy.

If we are to control population growth then we must set clear parameters for growth.

The Coalition will achieve this by tasking the Productivity and Sustainability Commission to advise on growth bands that it considers are sustainable, which in turn provide the framework for setting migration programmes. Under the Coalition we will seek to exert stronger controls over supply, than the open ended demand driven approach that has been followed by the Rudd Gillard Government. These controls will be exercised to ensure we remain within a sustainable growth path.

At the same time we have committed that two thirds of the permanent migration in take will be for skills.

Going forward to frame population policy we must be mindful of the following:

Firstly we must understand what is now driving population growth. This is an area where the Government has been found wanting.
The issue of net overseas migration is significant in this debate and is not well understood.

This change has occurred not because natural increase has been in decline. To the contrary, natural increase will eclipse 160,000 this year, compared to 130,000 in 2006.

The relevance of the upward trend in net overseas migration is that, unlike natural increase, it is more responsive to Government policy settings. More accurately it is a product of those settings.

This makes sense as these people also consume our services, impact our environment, and draw on our economic resources.

According to the ABS there are currently 22.3 million people who fit this definition and more than 500,000 people turned up in 2008/09.

So less than half of everyone who adds to our number each year are part of permanent migration.

Of greater significance is what has been driving the growth in arrivals.

When you analyse the movement in long stay visas, whether they are business, students, or other types of visa some other trends emerge.

It is clear that business 457 visas are also not responsible for the increase. Between 2006 and 2009, business skilled 457 visas increased by just of 30,000 to just over 100,000 grants, and more recently in the current year have fallen by a similar amount. If you combine 457s with permanent skills visas the increase has been just over 40,000.

The modest changes in skilled migration in recent years, when population growth has been running at historically high levels is highly unusual.
The overwhelming increase has been in student visas, up almost 130,000, between 2006 and 2009, to 320,000 grants, with almost two thirds of this increase being in the vocational sector. These visa holders have become a pipeline for permanent residency, with DEEWR surveys showing that two thirds of final year students consider applying for permanent residency.

Recent inquiries, such as the Baird review, have highlighted the rorts and abuses going on in the student visas system. Recent announcements, with conditional support from the Coalition, should have an impact.

It was therefore confusing at the time that the now Prime Minister chastised the Coalition for highlighting the problem of a temporary long stay programme being out of control, and that action was needed to address areas such as the abuses in the student visa programme.

The now Prime Minister said at the time we were putting at risk the economic viability of the education sector, by suggesting the need for change and more broadly highlighting the impacts on out of control population growth. Yet all the while her own Government was preparing to head down this path and now she says, she’s a true believer.

Similarly the Government’s Population Minister, said our analysis was misleading and the only thing that mattered was permanent movements. Clearly, this also betrays a lack of appreciation of the policy responses that will be most important to get this area under control again.

If we are to get our population growth under control then we must start by changing the demand driven culture of long stay visas to a supply orientated model.

We must also seek to shut down the visa factory operations running out of China and India in particular, as we did with unscrupulous operators in the travel market, when we were last in Government.

Secondly we must understand that the primary reason for having a migration programme is economic – to deliver the skills and labour that is necessary to support our economy and boost our productivity, that is not available locally. This is as much about the volume of our intake as it is about composition.

The Coalition has committed in our sustainable population policy to having two thirds of our permanent migration programme dedicated to skills migration. Within the skills component we are also keen to ensure we maintain a healthy independent skills programme that is being suffocated by the Government’s union focussed approach.

As I noted before it is not the skills programme that has driven Australia’s population surge. Yet the programme is under attack.
Labor’s skills migration program is designed for big business and the unions.

457s have been subjected to significant changes that combined with economic forces has led to a 36% reduction so far this year. These changes are being particularly felt in regional areas, where skills needs are most pressing and seasonal factors exacerbate the challenge. Labour agreement only deals for semi skilled 457s, tougher language requirements, artificially inflated wage bars, and increased costs are making 457s a non option for employers in regional areas and also for small business.

Our independent skills programme is also under threat, with Labor presiding over an intentional 25% decline in the number of independent skilled visas since 2007/08.

Labor’s view is that decisions about who comes to this country should be contracted out, and I don’t just mean to people smugglers, which is not the topic of today’s presentation. Although this is an area where there has also been no change to policy under Julia Gillard.

No longer does Labor see a proactive role for Government in this area, and would rather contract these decision to those businesses, typically larger businesses, who have the resources and time to engage in the employer nominated stream.

Thirdly , we must understand that population growth does not impact uniformly across the country.

The population pressures are felt mainly on the east coast cities of Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, which receive the vast majority of intake.
In regional areas there is a demand for increased population, and at the very least need additional skills and labour to sustain local businesses and make these regions economically viable and sustainable. This includes an appreciation of the seasonal requirements of these areas.

As noted earlier, Labor has declared war on 457s. We need to liberalise 457s for regional areas. The working holiday maker program is also very important.

We must look to increase the resettlement opportunities in regional areas and look to ways to encourage Australians and migrants alike to seek opportunities where they are. This may require further examination of the conditionality applied to visas, and not just temporary long stay visas.
Visas are a privilege not a right. No one has the right to live in Australia, other than citizens.

Fourthly, we must also acknowledge that the capacity for population growth is not static. As I said in an article in the The Australian in January, growth is good when managed well. Part of managing growth well is to make efforts in areas such as infrastructure, water management, food security, housing affordability, environmental conservation and service delivery that ideally work to increase our capacity for growth.

Finally our capacity for growth, with respect to migration will also be conditioned by community confidence in how our immigration programmes are run. The Government’s failures to date to allow the programme to get out of control and in particular their decision to roll back the immigration policies that formed part of the Howard Government’s strong border protection regime, have undermined community confidence, due to the appalling failure of the Rudd-Gillard government’s policies in these areas.

Under the Coalition community concerns about immigration halved, while our permanent immigration intake doubled. Our focus on selecting migrants who had skills and employing policies that preserved the integrity of our refugee and humanitarian programme, were critical in securing community trust. Under the Rudd Gillard Government this confidence has been lost.

Trust and confidence in our immigration programme and our borders must be restored. This will be the primary goal of the Coalition’s immigration policies should we be elected to Government.

Event : The Elephant House Church, Sundays @3 Ethics: a School for Thought..

Sun, 27 Jun 2010 10:13:53 GMT

Event

The Elephant House Church, Sundays @3 Ethics: a School for Thought..

Sunday 29th August 2010

Time : 15:00:00

Location : The Elephant House Church, Cronulla

Event Details:

Prof Bruce Langtry, University of Melbourne, "Ethics: a School for Thought..."

Prof Langtry is a philosopher and anthropologist. Coupled with his ability to communicate, this question and answer session is especially topical for those with children in the NSW education system.

t +61 2 9524 1799
e info@theelephanthousechurch.org.au
www.theelephanthousechurch.org.au

Event : The Elephant House Church, Sundays @3: A Pair of Shorts!

Sun, 27 Jun 2010 10:11:02 GMT

Event

The Elephant House Church, Sundays @3: A Pair of Shorts!

Sunday 8th August 2010

Time : 15:00:00

Location : The Elephant House Church, Cronulla

Event Details:

A Pair of Shorts!
Bishop Ken and Mrs Gloria Short with Kitty Diosy breakfast speaker returning.
Afternoon tea, followed by discussion.

www.theelephanthousechurch.org.au

Media Release : Another Labor Leader, another boat arrival

Fri, 25 Jun 2010 14:00:00 GMT

The arrival of the first boat, carrying 99 people, following the change of Labor leadership, highlights the fact that Labor needs to do more than change their leader to stop the boats, they need to change their failed policies, Shadow Minister for Immigration and Citizenship, Scott Morrison and Shadow Minister for Justice, Customs and Border Protection, Michael Keenan said today.

“Another Labor leader, another boat arrival, another Labor policy failure. This will continue to be the pattern until the Labor government changes their failed policies." Mr Morrison said.

“The arrival of the 141st boat since the Rudd-Gillard Government began rolling back the Coalition's strong border protection regime, highlights the fact that you can change leaders as many times as you like, but it's the policies that count.

“These boats were not coming to visit Kevin Rudd. They were coming because the Labor Government softened our immigration and border protection laws. These policies are just as soft under Julia Gillard as they were under Kevin Rudd and they have no plans to change them.

“Julia Gillard will find out, just like Kevin Rudd, that you can't spin the boats away. It requires real policies that deliver real action.

“The only way to change Labor's failed border protection policies to the Coalition's proven policies that stopped the boats is to change the Government.

“People smugglers respond to what you do, not what you say. Labor's problem on border protection is their policy, not their message, nor their messenger,” he said.

Mr Keenan said: “Despite the change in Labor leaders this week, the boats are still coming, with this latest arrival carrying nearly 100 people.

“This is the first real test for the new Prime Minister - to stop the boats from coming.

“Julia Gillard has an opportunity to reverse the disastrous border protection policy brought in under Rudd that has led to record numbers of boat arrivals.

“Gillard needs to prove she is different to Rudd by taking real action to restore strength to our borders.

“She needs to bring back temporary protection visas, commit to offshore processing and turn boats around where possible.

“Otherwise this is just the same old Labor Government floating the same broken policy on border protection, only now there's someone else steering the rudderless ship,” he said.

Media Release : Trancript - ABC - Lateline

Thu, 24 Jun 2010 14:00:00 GMT

EandOE

Subjects: Labor leadership change, Labor’s great big tax on mining

Scott Morrison MP, Federal Member for Cook and Shadow Minister for Immigration and Citizenship
Chris Bowen, Minister for Financial Services, Superannuation and Corporate Law; Minister for Human Services

LEIGH SALES, PRESENTER: It's been such a slow news week I'm not quite sure how we'll fill the time with our guests tonight, but let's try to struggle through with the Shadow Minister for Immigration, Scott Morrison; he's in Canberra. And with me in the Sydney studio is Chris Bowen; he's currently the current Minister for Financial Services, but with a reshuffle likely in the next few days, who knows?

Great to have you both with us.

CHRIS BOWEN, FINANCIAL SERVICES MINISTER: Thanks, Leigh. Nice to be with you.

SCOTT MORRISON, SHADOW IMMIGRATION MINISTER: Hi, Leigh. Hi, Chris.

CHRIS BOWEN: G'day, Scott.

LEIGH SALES: Scott Morrison, everyone saw Julia Gillard mouth the words "game on" to Tony Abbott as she entered Question Time yesterday. Has Tony Abbott's job become much harder with this shift by Labor?

SCOTT MORRISON: Well, what we've seen this week is no change in policy; a change of leader certainly, but no change in policy. What we've seen this week is a process undertaken by the Labor Party to try and fix what they think is the problem, which is their message and their messenger. But the problem is the policy. And so as long as those policies remain the same, then the Coalition's task remains the same and that is to see that those policies are changed at the next election by changing the government, and that's our very clear urging to voters.

LEIGH SALES: Chris Bowen, this message: different leader, same dud policies, is clearly going to be getting a hammering now right up until the election. How is Labor going to counter that?

CHRIS BOWEN: Well, Leigh, every Prime Minister puts their own stamp on the Government. That's why governments are named after Prime Ministers - the Howard Government, the Rudd Government and the Gillard Government. Julia comes to the office with a particular focus, with a particular background and she'll be putting her own stamp on this government, and that will be through policy, that will ...

LEIGH SALES: So you'll be drawing a line under the Rudd era?

CHRIS BOWEN: Well we'll be building on some of our achievements during Kevin's Prime Ministership. They are many. But we got the message loud and clear from the Australian people that they wanted to build on those achievements, particularly getting Australia through the Global Financial Crisis, wanted a renewed emphasis on basic issues like cost of living, working families, reward for hard work. That was the message we were getting that they wanted a renewed and different focus on those things. The party took the decision the best way for that change of focus was a fresh approach in the leadership.

LEIGH SALES: Prime Minister Gillard said yesterday that the Labor Government had lost its way. How did that happen?

CHRIS BOWEN: Well, as I say, I think the Australian people gave us a tick for economic management, getting through the Global Financial Crisis, but then said we want to see the second term agenda. We wanna see a renewed focus on what's really important to us, which is our cost of living and our future.

LEIGH SALES: But how did that explain how the Government lost its way?

CHRIS BOWEN: Well I think that the Australian people have asked us for a renewed focus on those things and that's what Julia was talking about when she said we'd lost our way. We'd lost perhaps some of the emphasis on those things and we're committed to returning to that, and also building on the success of doing these things, building on the success of the biggest increase in the aged pension for 100 years, for example building on the success of the major reform to health and the 1,000 new nurses we've trained. Building on the success of the trade training centres and taking that to a new level.

LEIGH SALES: Scott Morrison, was there a little bit of envy in the Coalition yesterday looking at Julia Gillard and thinking, "Well if only Peter Costello had had the courage to do that before the last election"?

SCOTT MORRISON: No, none of that was in our minds. And I think the question you've just asked, Leigh, is the key question: where does this government think it lost its way and why won't they say where it lost its way?

I mean, this "lost its way" is a manufactured focus group line along with "getting things back on track", but they haven't actually said where they - do they think they lost their way on border protection? On the home insulation program? The BER program? This is where people have concerns with this government over policy, but yet the Prime Minister today and yesterday said nothing about changing policy on border protection, has said nothing about changing policy on the BER or the home insulation.

So, my question to Chris is: where have you lost your way and why won't the Prime Minister say where she's lost the way rather than just parroting this focus group line out there to try and mollify people as opposed to give them real hope which is that you'll change your policies in these key areas?

LEIGH SALES: Chris Bowen?

CHRIS BOWEN: Well, as I said, Leigh, Julia Gillard will have her own emphasis as the new Prime Minister. That emphasis will be on support for working families on the basic issues.

LEIGH SALES: Does that mean change, though? Because under Kevin Rudd we heard the phrase "working families" pretty often.

CHRIS BOWEN: Well it means a different focus, it means a fresh approach.

LEIGH SALES: Does that mean a change, though?

CHRIS BOWEN: Well it will mean changed policies, yes, but it also ...

SCOTT MORRISON: What? What's going change?

CHRIS BOWEN: Well, Scott, Leigh asks the questions around here, Scott, and I'm answering these questions.

SCOTT MORRISON: Well, I'm interested to know. You've challenged a leader, the first time a leader of a government has been changed in their first term, which is the most historic event that we've seen in a very, very long time; probably the most significant we've seen since the Dismissal. And this is all happened for a reason that has not yet been explained to the Australian people other than people getting jittery over polls and union bosses and faction leaders turning up and knocking on Kevin Rudd's door. Why did the Government change their leader? What policies are they going to change?

LEIGH SALES: Chris Bowen, let me put to you something that the former Labor leader Mark Latham said today. Which is that he thinks in part the leader was changed because modern Labor is obsessed with polls.

CHRIS BOWEN: No, I reject that, and I think Mark is frankly out of touch with what's happening in Caucus. The Caucus does very much stay in touch with its constituency, as you would expect - that's our job: to be in touch with what people are thinking on the street and what messages we're getting from people on the street. And part of that is, yes, you do research and you look at that.

But you're not driven by it. It's a useful guide to what the Australian people are thinking, as well as what people are saying to you in your constituencies and when you're visiting other people's constituencies and you take all that on board. And, yes, we were getting feedback from the Australian people that they wanted to see some changes, they wanted to see a different approach.

They gave us a tick for some things, but also felt we were falling short on other things. And that was the feedback that the Caucus had, and Caucus took the view, "If that's the feedback that we're getting from the Australian people, the appropriate thing to do is to listen that and change our focus and change our leader."

LEIGH SALES: Scott Morrison, let me put to it you, rightly or wrongly, Labor says that Tony Abbott has an image problem among women. What calculations will he have to make in dealing now with a woman as his chief opponent?

SCOTT MORRISON: Well, again, Leigh, this isn't about personalities. I think the Australian people are looking past that. And this is about policies. We've got a great, big tax which this government has still got in place and we've got a great, big tax where the revenues are still in the budget and the spending is still in the budget. I mean, Chris just talked then about feedback that he was getting from his electorate.

Now he'll know full well that the feedback that they got in the seat of Penrith at a state level and from the seat of Lindsay is that the Australian people, at least in that electorate, are fed up with this government's border protection policies. Now, that's what they're getting feedback on, and still we're not getting the answers about what they're going to change.

LEIGH SALES: But are you telling me that the personalities of Julia Gillard and Tony Abbott are irrelevant?

SCOTT MORRISON: No, what I'm telling you is that the focus and obsession over the course of this week has all been about policies on the - sorry, on personalities on behalf of the Labor Party. That's what's driven them over this change; not policy.

They're not gonna change a thing. I mean, Julia Gillard was part of every single decision that this government made. She was in there root and branch in every single decision and all of a sudden now they're trying to make out as they did with Morris Iemma and the other premiers that followed that this is all going to change. But what we're seeing is what happened in NSW in absolute fast forward here in Canberra.

And so, the Prime Minister - the former Prime Minister, I should say, was quite right when he looked allegedly at Mark Arbib in the Caucus and said, "I don't want to see this government go down the NSW path." Well, I'm sorry, Kevin: we're down that path and the NSW people know where it finishes.

LEIGH SALES: Let me bring this up with you, Chris Bowen, because this sort of message is something we've been hearing a lot of as well about factions and whatnot. Was the monumental move that Labor took this week something that grew from within the parliamentary party, or was it imposed by the Labor machine in Sussex Street?

CHRIS BOWEN: Absolutely the Parliamentary Party. And, Leigh, if you get into Parliament, and I would say this is the same with the Liberal Party: if you get into Parliament, you've shown a certain determination and you've shown a certain level of being headstrong. And nobody tells you what to do. And the idea that MPs would, you know, get a phone call from somebody else and saying, "There's gonna be a leadership challenge and this is how you're voting," is ludicrous. That doesn't happen.

LEIGH SALES: Paul Howes, the AWU secretary, came on Lateline to say that his members had withdrawn their support from Kevin Rudd. He's not a member of the elected party.

CHRIS BOWEN: Yeah, but he didn't give a direction. He doesn't ring up members of Parliament and give directions. Certainly people can get feedback from all sorts of people.

LEIGH SALES: So what actually happens then?

CHRIS BOWEN: Well what happens is people take soundings and say, "Look, if there's a ballot, how would you vote?," and people give their feedback. And that was the case in the last leadership change from Kim Beazley to Kevin Rudd, and it was the case in this leadership change. The idea that somehow three or four people can make a decision and give instructions to the rest just isn't how the modern Labor Party works.

LEIGH SALES: Scott Morrison, you've been chuckling away. You're obviously not persuaded?

SCOTT MORRISON: I have. No, I'm - look, I saw Paul Howes on Lateline last night. He'd said just before he'd come on air that he'd spoken to Julia Gillard. I mean, when you look at what was done with Bernie Reardon and all those in NSW and John Robertson before he was in the Parliament; I mean, honestly, no-one believes that, Chris, and you can say that literally until dawn, but the influence of the union movement in these decisions and their influence over the factions is well-known and we saw that come back to Canberra in force this week.

LEIGH SALES: But, Scott Morrison, I wonder do you think that the message about factions and factional influence is something that people are going to be sitting around their barbeques on Saturday night saying, "Oh, gee, I'm really worried about the factional influence on Labor. Guess I better vote for Tony Abbott"?

SCOTT MORRISON: Well it's more than the factions; it was the union bosses, and you had a union boss on your program last night saying how he wasn't going to put up - he wasn't gonna put up without a change of leadership and he was backing that and he was part of the plan. Now, last time I looked, Paul Howes wasn't an elected member of Parliament, and here he was deciding the fate of who should run the country from outside of this Parliament. And I thought that was a very grubby exercise and I don't think it did him any favours, his union any favours and their credibility.

LEIGH SALES: Let's go back to the issue of gender that I raised before. Chris Bowen, do you think that the Prime Minister's gender makes up part of her electoral appeal?

CHRIS BOWEN: Well it's part of who she is, and I don't think that she particularly regards herself as a female prime minister. She regards herself as a prime minister who happens to be the first female prime minister. But it's part of history and some people will be of course delighted with the fact we have a first female prime minister and will want to keep her there. But it's much - she is much, much more than a female prime minister. She'll be a very good prime minister who happens to be female.

LEIGH SALES: Scott Morrison, let me bring you back to that point again which you didn't really answer before, which is has the Coalition had to make some different calculations about the way you might deal with a challenge from Julia Gillard versus Kevin Rudd?

SCOTT MORRISON: No. I mean, our focus, as I said before, is on the policies. And it's the policies that is the reason this government is a bad government. It is the policies that are the reason we have a $40 billion deficit and we're going to over $90 billion worth of debt, borrowing $100 million a day, $700 million a week. It's the reason we've had 140 boats arrive. Their policies have produced these outcomes. These policies aren't changing under Julia Gillard.

LEIGH SALES: Chris Bowen, development that's been a little bit overshadowed this week is Lindsay Tanner announcing that he intends to depart. How significant a blow is that to the party?

CHRIS BOWEN: Well Lindsay's a loss. He's a very considerable talent. I've worked closely with Lindsay as members of the Expenditure Review Committee of the Cabinet.

LEIGH SALES: Would you like to take his job as Finance Minister?

CHRIS BOWEN: Oh, that's entirely a matter for Julia and Lindsay's ...

LEIGH SALES: But, would you like it though?

CHRIS BOWEN: Well, I'll do whatever the Prime Minister asks me to. Whatever job she wants me to do, I'll do. But I'd just like to take a minute out to pay tribute to Lindsay ...

LEIGH SALES: Hopefully not a full minute. We don't have that much time. But a brief tribute to Lindsay.

CHRIS BOWEN: Well I would like to say that Lindsay's been a very good contributor. When he got up in the Parliament and said his two daughters need him more - well, his four kids, but particularly his two young daughters needs him more than the country needs him, that's something I could relate to and it was a very personal moment and ...

LEIGH SALES: You're not about to say you're going, are you?

CHRIS BOWEN: No, no, no, not at all, but it's something I think we all could relate to - people in Parliament, and he deserves our best wishes because he has been a great contributor to the Government.

LEIGH SALES: Scott Morrison, let's quickly whip over to the super-profits tax. If Julia Gillard does do a deal with the mining companies over this, isn't that going to leave the Coalition well out on a limb?

SCOTT MORRISON: No. Well, what hasn't changed is the reason they've brought in this tax. The reason they've brought in this tax is because their spending's out of control. And the message that has gone out to the Australian people - as Labor keeps spending - the only way they know how to manage the government is to keep taxing. And so it's the spending that's the problem here from the Government. And the tax ...

LEIGH SALES: Yes, but that doesn't really relate to the question, which is if they make a deal with the mining companies successfully, where does that leave you?

SCOTT MORRISON: Well it leaves us opposed to a tax that has been brought in because of a government's addictions to spending.

LEIGH SALES: But will you be opposing it on the behalf of if the mining companies have then agreed to it?

SCOTT MORRISON: Well I think that's a very hypothetical situation you've raised. I mean, let's see what happens. All we've seen happen at is moment is some new-fashioned words come out from the new prime minister talking about negotiations. Now, the money is still in the budget. The spending is still in the budget. And when those two things no longer exist, then maybe that's a conversation we can have. But right now this government is spending and taxing.

LEIGH SALES: Chris Bowen, does Labor still believe that it will be back in surplus in 2012-2013?

CHRIS BOWEN: Absolutely. Our surplus projections stand.

LEIGH SALES: How can you be so confident of that, though, when this super-profits tax issue is unresolved?

CHRIS BOWEN: Because - and Scott wells knows this; he was just engaging in some pretty basic sophistry. All the revenue from the resource super-profits tax is devoted to particular spending initiatives. None of it goes to - are going into surplus.

The surplus is based on our spending rules, limiting spending growth to two per cent, and the growth and strength of the economy, which stands - which is in a good part due to our stimulus and our economic management through the Global Financial Crisis, because we said the way to ensure the long-term sustainability of the budget is to stimulate the economy now, and frankly, we were right.

LEIGH SALES: Scott Morrison, let me finish with you. I just want to ask you to clear up something for us. Did Tony Abbott tell the party room this week that a famous victory was within its grasp?

SCOTT MORRISON: Well, look, it was earlier in the week, but what I remember is this: Tony made it very clear, whatever words he actually used that we had a long way to go and we were the underdogs in this election. And that's the message he gave us.

LEIGH SALES: Were the words "famous victory" used, because there does seem to be some confusion around that?

SCOTT MORRISON: Well, look, I don't take notes on party room meetings, as I said on the doors earlier this week.

LEIGH SALES: What do you recall?

SCOTT MORRISON: And, look, I don't recall those sort of phrases. What I recall is the message that Tony gave us, and that was that this election certainly was winnable, but it was also losable. Every election is like that. That, you know, we have the Everest challenge ahead of us. And I've said many times: we may have left base camp, but Everest is still ahead of us.

LEIGH SALES: Scott Morrison, Chris Bowen, it's been a huge week. You both are probably exhausted. Thank you very much for making time to come in and speak to us. See you again soon.

CHRIS BOWEN: Thanks, Leigh. Look forward to it.

SCOTT MORRISON: Thanks, Leigh. Thanks, Chris.

Media Release : Another Labor leader, another policy failure

Thu, 24 Jun 2010 14:00:00 GMT

Prime Minister Julia Gillard has failed to commit to any changes in Labor's failed border protection policies that have attracted 140 illegal boat arrivals carrying more than 6,500 people, Shadow Minister for Immigration and Citizenship, Scott Morrison said today.

“Yesterday and today the Prime Minister has refused to admit that Labor's failed border protection policies was one of the areas where the Government had lost its way. Tomorrow will be the same, no change to policy,” Mr Morrison said.

“Prime Minister Gillard will find out, just like the Prime Minister she brutally terminated, that you can't spin the boats away. It requires real policies that deliver real action,” he said.

“To stop the unprecedented arrival of illegal boats to Australia requires a change of policy by Labor, not a change of Leader. Julia Gillard represents the same failed border protection policies as Kevin Rudd that have seen illegal boat arrivals go from three per year to three per week.

“The only way to change Labor's failed border protection policies to the Coalition's proven policies that stopped the boats is to change the Government.

“Julia Gillard's first challenge will be to address the discriminatory and ineffective asylum assessment freeze that expires for Sri Lankans on July 9.

“Since this policy was introduced eleven weeks ago there have been 34 illegal boat arrivals carrying more than 1,500 people.

“The Prime Minister must indicate whether she will acknowledge that Labor has lost its way on border protection and adopt the Coalition's full suite of proven border protection policies.

“People smugglers respond to what you do, not what you say. Labor's problem on border protection is their policy, not their message, nor their messenger,” he said.

Media Release : Transcript - Sky News PM Agenda

Wed, 23 Jun 2010 14:00:00 GMT

EandOE

Subjects: Labor leadership, illegal boat arrivals, Lindsay Tanner, Federal election speculation, Kevin Rudd

KIERAN GILBERT: Scott is Julia Gillard a more formidable opponent?

SCOTT MORRISON: Well this has been an extraordinary day. It’s been an extraordinary day for a lot of reasons and I think the most significant one is that we have never seen a first term Prime Minister treated like this. Now what Julia Gillard does we will see as time goes on but the policies are the same. We put questions today in question time about this policy, that policy, will it change and the answer is no. So there’s no change to policy and the reason for the change is for Labor to explain to the Australian people. We can go back to 1998, 2001, 2004 the Howard Government had its difficulties going into each of those elections but it was a government that had belief in itself. At the first sign of fire, this government has gone to water, the factional liquidators have come in and basically liquidated all the assets. It’s an extraordinary day in politics.

KG: Well Julia Gillard’s seemed to get off to a good start with the miners, the Minerals Council has put on hold their advertising, BHP also on hold, others might have done so since but that’s all in response to the government cancelling it’s $40 million worth of advertising so that olive branch seemed to have worked and at least the miners seem to be open to the new leader.

SM: Well the miners have always been interested in having a serious negotiation whether they get one or not we will see but the revenue is still in the budget, the expenditure is still in the budget and as long as that addiction to the expenditure and revenue is there then so will be the addiction to the tax.

KG: But it looks like it’s been a circuit breaker at the very least when it comes to that debate.

SM: Well I think that is leaping to conclusions a bit let’s see what happens.

KG: Well it stopped the advertising, I think the viewers will recognise that.

SM: Well this is about the tax, this isn’t just about the advertising, this is about the tax and whether it stops the tax which is what we have been arguing is the key issue and the revenue is still there in the budget, the spending is still there in the budget.

KG: Well what about the fact that this is the first female Prime Minister, it is an historic development to think that the Australian electorate want to give Julia Gillard a chance. It has been a long time coming, more than a century. Will they want to give her a fair go?

SM: I think all Australians like to give people a go, to give people a chance. I think it is very unfortunate that that historic event has come at the same time as unfortunate historic circumstances and they are that a first term Prime Minister has been literally guillotined by his own government. I mean that is an extraordinary way to treat a first term Prime Minister who took Labor back from 11 and a half years in opposition and as I say the first sign of fire and they go to water like in NSW. It really is the transfer of what we have seen from state Labor governments in NSW and QLD coming to Canberra and the names have changed but the act is the same.

KG: What about in your specific area of responsibility and asylum seekers and border protection. Julia Gillard seemed to suggest she would be more open and willing to listen to the community’s concerns but that sounded like sticking to the policy they have in place.

SM: There is no change in policy on asylum seekers or border protection...

KG: Is she going to be a tougher communicator and a better communicator in articulating their case, a tougher opponent for you?

SM: There is only one thing that matters and that is if she stops the boats. That is what people are looking for. People smugglers won’t be convinced out of coming, they will be stopped by action and the Australian people want to see action. We’ve put forward a real plan for action, this government’s policies have not changed so if you want to stop the boats you have to change the government.

KG: So in terms of the message though you are not concerned about Julia Gillard getting out there and explaining it a little bit more effectively their case rather than vacating the field as some Labor MPs had thought their previous leader had done?

SM: Well you can’t spin the boats away. You can’t spin them away. This government thinks they can spin themselves out of any problem. They think this is a spin answer to a problem they think they have. You need to change policies, not just the message, you need to change policies and this government hasn’t changed their policies and so the boats will keep coming they will just by J boats, not K boats.

KG: It was a bizarre day in politics because it did conclude with a rare show of bipartisanship with tributes to Lindsay Tanner, for those viewers who are just joining us, Lindsay Tanner announced he won’t be recontesting the next election, that was a surprise to most observers I think. What do you make of that? It is certainly a loss to the Labor Party frontbench that’s for sure.

SM: Well Lindsay plays his politics hard and is always respected for that but I think he was one of the people that actually had some knowledge and understanding of things economic and particularly in the business community Lindsay seemed to be the only one they spoke very favourably of and the loss of Lindsay Tanner I think is a big blow to the government’s economic credentials out there in the business community but another thing I think that resonated a lot with people in the Chamber today is what he said about family. Lindsay is taking that decision because of family, we all have families who are long suffering for what we choose to do and I think all members identified with that and really commend him for what is a very brave and I am sure hard decision.

KG: And Scott with the change in leadership in the Labor party, you are a former strategist and director of the Liberal Party in NSW, if you put your strategists hat on for us for a moment, what do you think this says about election timing? Do you think Julia Gillard will go to an August election to try and capitalise on any honeymoon that she might have?

SM: Well with these things there is always myriad options. This news is less than 24 hours old. The government has to explain why they changed their leader. There is no change in policy and so as a result I think until the government can give an explanation as to why they assassinated a first term Prime Minister then what is the basis of the change, until the people have a good understanding of that I would be surprised if she would want to have that tested by the Australian people. There has been no case for change that the government has made out and if the government wants to test that with the Australian people then go right ahead.

KG: Ok one last question I want to get your personal thoughts on, the human side of what we saw today. Kevin Rudd, it was a very raw news conference, emotional, did you feel for him?

SM: I think you wouldn’t be human if you didn’t. We all work hard in this place for the things we believe in and I think we saw a bit more of that from Kevin than we have seen for some time. I think it is sad that someone like Kevin who clearly had some strong beliefs has literally been completely overhauled by a factional and union machine and it is a sad day I think. It was a very sad day from that perspective, that the big winners today were the factional bosses and the unions. Politics got a little uglier today.

END

Media Release : Transcript - Doorstop Interview

Wed, 23 Jun 2010 14:00:00 GMT

E and OE

Subject: Labor leadership

SCOTT MORRISON: The events of last night show that this is a federal Labor government that has caught the NSW Labor disease. We have got a government that is showing all the signs of the NSW Labor Government on fast forward. You have union bosses and others calling the shots, faceless men, all of these things taking place. One thing is for sure today and that is this – a change in leadership in the Labor Party, whether it happens or not isn’t going to pay back debt, it isn’t going to stop the boats arriving at an unprecedented rate, it’s not going to stop the disastrous house fires that have occurred as a result of this government’s failed insulation program. It’s not going to end the waste and the mismanagement. These changes can only be brought about by the Australian people, not factional bosses in the Labor Party. These can be brought about by the Australian people by a change in government. So if you want to stop Labor’s waste, if you want to stop Labor’s mismanagement, if you want to stop the boats, if you want to stop all these things, there’s only one thing the Australian people can do when they are finally given that opportunity and that is to change the government.

QUESTION: [Inaudible]

SCOTT MORRISON: Look not at all. What this is about is what this government has done. The gang of four may have become a gang of three today but the policies of that gang continue to wreak havoc in this country.

QUESTION: Scott, who’s the Joe Tripodi of the Federal Labor Party?

SCOTT MORRISON: Well I suspect Paul Howes might have a bit of a crack at that but maybe Bill Shorten or any of the others but what we are seeing clearly here is, with union leader after union leader lining up on radio and television to crow and basically say that Kevin Rudd doesn’t understand that it’s factional politics that drives the Labor Party, I think says it all. These are decisions that should be made by the Australian people and those decisions have been basically abused by what we have seen from the factional bosses and the union movement who are basically now calling the shots.

QUESTION: Can Tony Abbott win an election fighting Julia Gillard?

SCOTT MORRISON: The issues are the same. Regardless of what happens today the issues are the same.

QUESTION: She is much more popular with the electorate at the moment.

SCOTT MORRISON: I will tell you what’s not popular. Homes burning down is not popular, rorts and abuses in the BER are not popular, boats arriving at an unprecedented rate of arrival are not popular. The Labor Government’s policies are not popular and if the Labor Government bosses think that they can apply the same techniques they have used in NSW then they can try that but I think the Australian people have seen through the Keneally Government and the string of other Labor leaders that have been put up by the union movement there and they will see through what is a very cynical fix all designed to focus on the interests of Labor’s factions and unions not on the Australian people. This is a Labor Party thinking and talking about itself at the moment, not thinking and talking about the Australian people.

QUESTION: [inaudible]

SCOTT MORRISON: What is not popular are the Labor Government’s policies and at the end of the day people are going to make judgements about whether this government has been a good government for Australia and I think that verdict is becoming clearer and clearer every day. They are tired of the waste, they are tired of the debt, they are tired of the boats arriving, they are tired of the mismanagement and the only way to change these things is by changing government.

QUESTION: [inaudible]

SCOTT MORRISON: I’m not into tipping, I’m into policy. Thanks.

END

Media Release : K140 arrives undetected as Kevin Rudd refuses to listen on border protection failures

Tue, 22 Jun 2010 14:00:00 GMT

The arrival of boat K140 undetected into Flying Fish Cove at Christmas Island shows that people smugglers continue to have the upper hand over Kevin Rudd and his failed border protection policies, Shadow Minister for Immigration and Citizenship, Scott Morrison and Shadow Minister for Justice, Customs and Border Protection, Michael Keenan said today.

“Kevin Rudd’s failure to secure our borders has sent over 6,500 people into the hands of people smugglers for the dangerous journey to Australia in 140 boats,” he said.

“This is a booming industry that is being sustained by Kevin Rudd’s stubborn refusal to listen to the concerns of the Australian people and change his policies to stop the unprecedented illegal arrival of boats to Australia.

“Since the Rudd Government’s cynical election fix of suspending processing of asylum seekers from Afghanistan and Sri Lanka was announced just eleven weeks ago, more than 1,500 people on 34 boats have arrived.

“This ineffective and discriminatory policy will only see more people indefinitely detained in tents, overcrowded facilities and in remote areas, including the re-opened Curtin Detention Centre and more border budget blowouts like the current $1 billion hole will emerge.

“The only boats Kevin Rudd wants to stop are those transporting minerals from our mines to Asian markets. Only the Coalition has the policies and the will necessary to stop illegal boat arrivals,” he said.

Mr Keenan said: “Despite the overwhelming concern of the Australian people and the arrival of more boats each week, this Government still refuses to take any real action to secure our borders.

“Kevin Rudd once declared war on the people smugglers.

“But now it appears that Rudd and the people smugglers have reached a truce, happy to co-exist under the current arrangement.

“The people smugglers keep selling their product of virtually guaranteed permanent residency in Australia, while the Government maintains its taxi service to and from Christmas Island.

“If Kevin Rudd refuses to take action now, one wonders if he ever will. Only a change in government will bring about a change in policy for border protection,” he said.

Media Release : Labor's $1 million waste a slap in the face to Shire schools

Sun, 20 Jun 2010 14:00:00 GMT

The Rudd Labor Government is wasting over $1 million on ‘incentive fees’ paid to large contractors at Shire schools while parents and students fight for basic facilities, Local Federal Member for Cook, Scott Morrison said today.

“Shire school communities have been ignored in the Rudd Government’s eagerness to spend with abandon and now over $1 million of taxpayer’s money is being wasted in fees that won’t see a single improvement at local schools,” Mr Morrison said.

“This is a kick in the guts for Shire schools, particularly for the parents, teachers and students at Gymea Bay Public who have been battling to have their dilapidated 75 year old toilets upgraded.

“The Rudd Government should have listened to parents and teachers at schools like Gymea Bay who know what their schools need. Instead the Rudd Government is spending over $73,000 paying incentive fees to big contractors at Gymea Bay while their toilets plunge further into ruin.

“This is yet another example of the Rudd Government’s misplaced spending which is a hallmark of the BER program.

“When a government adopts a spend first, think later strategy – local schools are ignored and taxpayer’s money is wasted.

“The Rudd Government’s BER programme has already been the subject of widespread abuse across the country, handing out more funds for incentive fees while ignoring local priorities is a flawed approach from a failed government.

“Schools deserve basic facilities but a government that is more interested in political expediency than the needs of students will never be able to deliver the outcomes needed to provide better education for our children,” Mr Morrison said.

Media Release : Boat Kevin70 followed by Kevin71

Thu, 17 Jun 2010 14:00:00 GMT

The arrival of two more boats, with 74 asylum seekers risking their lives with people smugglers, has pushed the number of boats to arrive in 2010 to more than 70, Shadow Minister for Immigration and Citizenship, Scott Morrison and Shadow Minister for Justice, Customs and Border Protection, Michael Keenan said today.

“The arrivals of boats Kevin70 and 71 for 2010 demonstrate Kevin Rudd's failure to think through the consequences of his decision to roll back the border protection regime inherited from the Coalition,” Mr Morrison said.

“Kevin Rudd may be thinking about delaying an election in the hope that the boats will just go away. He needs to understand that to stop the flow of boats requires real action as proposed by the Coalition,” he said.

“The arrival of these latest two boats has maintained Kevin Rudd's record rate of three illegal boat arrivals per week. Under the Coalition there were just three boats per year.

“Since the Rudd Government froze assessment of Afghan and Sri Lankan asylum applications there have been 33 boats carrying 1,492 people. The policy has proved to be as ineffective as it is discriminatory,” he said.

Mr Keenan said: “In typical Labor fashion, the announcement of these latest arrivals has been delayed until late on a Friday afternoon, in another attempt to bury a bad news story for the government.

“What’s more, the release has failed to identify the number of crew that were on either boat.

“There is no consistency in the government’s announcements, as each press release reveals fewer details than the one before.

“Surely it won’t be long before the government withholds the announcement of future boat arrivals altogether.

“How can the Australian people trust a government that works so hard to deceive them on this serious issue?

“Labor has lost the right to be trusted to protect our borders. Only a change in government will restore order to Australia’s border protection system,” he said.

Media Release : Opinion Piece - Daily Telegraph - Taking tough line on boat people is a moral choice

Mon, 14 Jun 2010 14:00:00 GMT

There are no easy moral choices on the issue of asylum policy.

Under the soft approach employed by Kevin Rudd more than 6300 people have risked their lives at sea and hundreds more never made it. Policies that open up an incentive for people smugglers will inevitably lead to tragic consequences. Equally, policies announced by the Coalition are not without moral burdens.

We make the decision that, on balance, taking a tougher approach with those who seek to come illegally by boat now will ensure fewer take this voyage later.

Our decision is based on the Coalition's experience in government. Offshore processing and temporary protection visas combined with other measures, including regional cooperation, led to a dramatic reduction in illegal boat arrivals.

Over three years from 1999 to 2001, more than 12,000 people arrived in 180 boats. After the introduction of the full suite of the Coalition's strong border protection policies, this reduced to an average of just three boats per year carrying just 50 people from 2002.

This continued for six years. Of great significance was that our detention population fell to 449 people when we left office, which including 21 children and four boat people.

Today, boats are arriving at a rate of more than three week, carrying more than 600 people per month. Our detention population has risen to 3500 including 452 children.

Costs have blown out by more than $1 billion and remote detention centres such as Curtin, closed by John Howard, are being reopened by Kevin Rudd.

Asylum claims of people from Afghanistan and Sri Lanka are now not even being assessed. These people are now being detained indefinitely in remote outback camps.

The Coalition believes that Kevin Rudd's polices have failed not only to secure our borders but on humanitarian grounds as well.

People's lives are being put at risk and the integrity of our immigration program is being fundamentally compromised.

If there is another way to stop the boats, then let's hear it. Hand wringing and moral lecturing do not qualify as real alternatives.

The other moral question that arises in response to those who choose to come to Australia by boat is would we do the same thing if we were in their shoes. I cannot make a moral judgment about the individual choices made by asylum seekers. Thankfully, I have not suffered their experience.

My argument is not with them but with Kevin Rudd and a Government which has set policies that encourage people to make dangerous decisions.

As a father and a husband I can identify with anyone who wants a better life for their family. When Australia was under threat, my grandfather's generation went to Milne Bay, Kokoda, Balikpapan, the Coral Sea and many other bloody places. They also wanted a better future for their families.

The majority of people arriving on boats today are Afghan males, between 18 and 35, who state they are fleeing the Taliban. Australian soldiers are in Afghanistan fighting the Taliban to end this persecution and train Afghan men to join this fight.

The short answer is I do not know what I would do. I would hope the example of my grandfather would loom large in my thinking.

Media Release : Boat Kevin 137 puts further pressure on border budget blowout

Mon, 14 Jun 2010 14:00:00 GMT

The illegal arrival of the 137th boat since Kevin Rudd rolled back the strong border protection regime inherited from the Coalition, will lead to further cost blowouts in the Rudd Government’s immigration budget, Shadow Minister for Immigration and Citizenship, Scott Morrison and Shadow Minister for Justice, Customs and Border Protection, Michael Keenan said today.

“Just a month ago the Rudd Government handed down a budget that contained a $1 billion cost blowout in immigration costs due to the Rudd Government’s border protection failures. That budget was based on total arrivals in 2009/10 of 4,500 people,” Mr Morrison said.

“This latest boat arrival brings the total number of people to arrive in 2009/10 to 5,388 people, meaning the costs released just a month ago have already blown out,” he said.

“Of greater concern is that the Rudd Government has based their 2010/11 budget for managing asylum seekers on their estimate that the number of people to arrive illegally by boat will fall by 60% to just 2,000 people.

“This is an absurd forecast that not even the Minister for Immigration and Citizenship believes.

“In Senate Estimates, Minister Evans stated ‘I am not very confident that we can with any surety say that the 2,000 figure that is used for accounting purpose in that budget paper can be supported.’

“If Kevin Rudd’s own Ministers don’t believe their budget, how can they expect anyone else to. Kevin Rudd has lost control of our borders and his own budget.

“If boats continue to arrive at their current rate of three a week and more than 600 people per month, Labor’s projected surplus will vanish, along with whatever is left of Labor’s budget credibility,” he said.

Mr Keenan said: “The state of Australia’s border protection system resembles the current state of the Labor leadership –a complete shambles.

“The mounting public pressure on the Prime Minister to account for this government’s long list of failures, most notably the complete collapse of our borders, has sent the Labor ranks into crisis mode.

“However Kevin Rudd still believes this is a PR problem, when the reality is that it is a problem caused by failed policy and a lack of leadership.

“Whether it is Kevin Rudd or Julia Gillard that leads Labor to the polls at the next election, it is clear that a Labor Government will always lack the resolve necessary to secure Australia’s borders,” he said.

Speech : Matter of Public Importance - Rudd Government's immigration and border protection failures

Mon, 14 Jun 2010 14:00:00 GMT

Speech

Matter of Public Importance - Rudd Government's immigration and border protection failures

Tuesday 15th June 2010

Today’s editorial in the Sydney Daily Telegraph highlights the matter of public importance before the House today. It says:

The constant arrival of claimed asylum seekers off Australia’s northern coastline comes with a dreadful toll. More than 150 men, women and children, lured by the promises of people-smugglers and a belief that Australia offers easy sanctuary, have drowned at sea since 2008.

This is a cost rarely mentioned in considering the ongoing issue of asylum seekers. And then there is the financial cost which, while of lesser concern, is now becoming outrageous.

It goes on to say:

… the Rudd Government seems unable or unwilling to take serious action to stop it.

Inaction is driving the various costs involved in this higher by the day.

There is nothing humane about policies that encourage people to risk their lives in the hands of people smugglers. People die on boats. This is the inconvenient truth of the asylum seekers debate and the reality for at least hundreds who have perished at sea.

People smugglers are not the modern-day equivalent of Oscar Schindler, as some in the public debate romantically suggest. Today’s people smugglers are criminal syndicates. They put others’ lives at risk for their own profit. If the Prime Minister spent as much time and energy in this House trying to destroy the profits of people smugglers as he does trying to tax the profits of our minerals sector, then perhaps things would be different. But they are not different today. Today we have boats arriving at a rate on average of three per week. This compares to an average of just three per year over the last six years of the Howard government. More people have arrived this month than arrived in total during the last six years of the Howard government once our full suite of measures was in place.

In fact, we have had more people arrive illegally by boat in the first five months of this year than in the 13 years following the end of the Vietnam War. Contrary to popular myth, large numbers of people and boats did not arrive on our shores following the Vietnam War. The boats and their passengers were diverted to offshore processing centres, in places like Galang in Indonesia, as part of a plan supported by the Fraser government. During this genuine regional crisis, Indochinese asylum seekers were processed offshore and resettled in the same way as they were processed at Nauru and Manus Island and resettled under the policies of the Howard government. In this context, Malcolm Fraser was indeed a pioneer of offshore processing.

Whatever our critics might argue, the Australian public know that John Howard and his government stopped the flow of boats. They have now returned, under this government’s failed policies, at an unprecedented rate of arrival. Under the Howard government’s policies, people were no longer risking their lives on boats, as they had previously. People smugglers were no longer earning the superprofits they are today. In fact, they were not earning superprofits or profits at all at that time. Our courts were no longer jammed with endless appeals from those seeking to have the rejection of their asylum claims overturned and to have their stay extended. Our detention population had fallen by the time we left office to just 449 people, of whom only four had arrived by boat, and just 21 children were being detained.

Detention centres such as Curtin and Baxter were closed. New state-of-the-art facilities were built on Christmas Island to cope with the modest arrivals anticipated under the coalition government’s policies—not the policy failures of this government. The coalition introduced reforms to remove children from formal detention and to process health, identity and security checks in parallel with refugee status determination. Those reforms made detention more humane and significantly improved processing efficiency to reduce the time people spent in detention. Those reforms remain coalition policy. The Howard government was confronted with a problem and it delivered a solution. This was done in the face of global asylum applications which at that time were more than 50 per cent higher than they are today.

Sadly, the number of refugees and people seeking asylum around the world remains high today. Of the 10½ million people around the world who are refugees—or the 10.4 million, I should say, having just seen the latest report for 2009, which is slightly less—less than one per cent will receive a resettlement in a third country such as Australia. This is a genuinely unique and very precious opportunity that is on offer to a very small number of people.

Throughout the coalition’s time in government, we maintained a strong resettlement program and we remain committed to this program today. We are still the most generous country per capita in terms of resettling refugees around the world and we boast, as we have for many years, of one of the best resettlement programs anywhere in the world. But, in contrast to the coalition’s policy, the Prime Minister’s policy serves to provide these places to those who seek to gain places by an illegal mode of entry, displacing those who have come by legal means and who have sought their asylum from offshore places in refugee camps. Those who have come by an illegal method have effectively taken the place of those who would have come by another method and who would have been given the support which is so precious and which is so given by a generous Australian community.

But what about those who come to this country by plane, as is often said? Those who arrive by air typically have a valid visa for entry and only a small minority arrive illegally without documentation. I am yet to learn of an asylum seeker who has perished on a 747 heading for Australia. That said, the coalition’s temporary protection visa policy will apply equally to those arriving illegally by air or those who have overstayed their visas and have sought asylum as it will to those who arrive illegally by boat.

The natural consequence of the Rudd government’s failed border protection policies is that our detention centres today are full again and the costs are spiralling out of control. There are now more than 3,600 people in detention. Since the abolition of temporary protection visas, the number of children being detained has grown to 452. There were, as I said earlier, 21 children being detained when the coalition left office. Under this government’s policies, there are now 452 children being detained. So do not be deluded: when boats are arriving at the rate under this government, there are always going to be children coming on boats, but if no boats are coming then there will be no children coming on boats. Under this government, people are being detained in tents, in overcrowded facilities and in remote areas, including the Curtin detention centre closed by the Howard government and reopened by the Rudd government.

This year’s budget outlines a budget blow-out of more than $1 billion on offshore asylum processing costs. Yet these estimates mask an even bigger blow-out. The Rudd government is predicting just 2,000 arrivals in 2010-11 and in the following year 1,260. In this year’s budget they assume 4,500 people will be coming to Australia—having forecast in the budget a year ago that only 200 people would come. So far this year 5,352 people have come and the year is not out yet. This means that the government is forecasting a drop in illegal boat arrivals of more than 60 per cent in 2010-11. According to the budget presented in the House by this government a month ago, in just a few weeks time we are going to have a 60 per cent decline in the number of people coming illegally by boat to this country. It is no wonder that in estimates Senator Evans, the minister responsible, said, ‘I am not very confident that we can with any surety say that the 2,000 figure that is used for the accounting purpose in that budget paper can be supported.’ He does not believe it. He does not believe his own budget papers.

The Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, has lost control of our borders and of his own budget. The government’s immigration budget is a work of fiction. It assumes boats will just stop coming in two weeks time, without it taking any of the hard decisions needed to deliver that outcome. Perhaps the Prime Minister believes that he can just spin these boats away like he does with all the other problems he has generated for himself. He thinks he can just spin them away out there in the 24-hour news cycle. Perhaps he thinks he is Obi-Wan Kenobi and that he can perform the Jedi mind trick on the boats. He can say, ‘This is not the country you were looking for,’ and somehow they will just go away. Maybe that is the policy, because when Senator Evans was asked in estimates about whether there was any change of policy to back up a 60 per cent fall in illegal boat arrivals, his answer was: ‘No. There’s no change of policy. We just think it’s going to happen.’ There is no need to make hard decisions, no need to do anything of a policy nature and no need to have any resolve. You put it in the budget and then the boats just go away. If only it were that easy. This side of the House knows from when we were in government how difficult these things are to achieve and what is necessary to achieve them. Not even Minister Evans believes his own budget. If boats continue to arrive at their current rate of three per week, carrying more than 600 people per month, Labor’s projected surplus will vanish, along with whatever is left of their budget credibility.

Included in these cost blow-outs is the cost of the charters. That was revealed today in the Daily Telegraph and other News Limited papers, reporting on Senate estimates. In the 10 months to January the department chartered 62 flights to and from Christmas island, at an average cost of $134,000 per flight—an increase of more than 240 per cent on the previous year. They expect to expend a further $8.1 million next year. This means ‘Air Kevin’ from Christmas Island will be going more than twice weekly under the Rudd government’s failed border protection policies. That will be an increase in their business. This brings a whole new meaning to the phrase ‘Kevin 747’. Of those two groups transferred to Villawood in late March and early April, the Prime Minister said in his big statement:

Our view as a Government is that when it comes to asylum seekers, if they do not pass the test of being legitimate asylum seekers, then they are sent home. That is what has happened with the decision made about this group of 90 or 100 asylum seekers, and that is why they are currently being processed for return back home.

That was reported in the Australian on 29 March. They are still there. They are seeking appeals and those who have finished their appeals are now joining a High Court action. So it is back to the bad old days of asylum seekers lining up in our courts to extend their stays. The coalition policy of offshore processing in a third country ended those types of claims.

Under this Prime Minister, the government can refuse to assess a person’s asylum claim purely on the basis of their nationality. Those on the other side of the House might want to run and hide on this issue and pretend this is not a big deal. But they know that that decision on 9 April was absolutely and utterly discriminatory, and they should be ashamed of it. What they have said is: ‘If you’re an Afghan or you’re a Sri Lankan and you want to claim asylum in Australia then we’re not even going to assess your claim, not because of your circumstances; it is because you are an Afghan or a Sri Lankan.’ The members opposite know that the convention is very clear on the point that you cannot discriminate on the basis of someone’s nationality. They should be ashamed of that policy. Since they announced that policy, at least 30 boats, carrying over 1,000 asylum seekers, have come to Australia. The policy has proved to be as discriminatory as it is ineffective.

Is it any wonder that those running these boats to Australia are in no doubt about the resolve of this Prime Minister? He simply has no resolve. No-one knows where the Prime Minister stands on this issue. One day he is freezing asylum claims and the next day he is pretending to be Mother Teresa on these issues. You cannot work out where this guy stands on the issue of asylum seekers. On this issue, he has walked both sides of the street—and taken a good stroll on the nature strips as well. Whether it is his abandonment of the policies that worked or his abandonment of his resolve when he rolled over on the Oceanic Viking, the people-smugglers have his measure. No wonder Sajjad Hussain Noor, a people-smuggler in Indonesia, told SBS:

… the door is open, if a door is open anyone can come in … people think its easier in Australia … you can become an Australian citizen straight away.

I do not doubt that the one-third of Australians who do not support the coalition’s strong border protection policies are motivated by a genuine sense of compassion. What I am disappointed about is that those opposite and others in this debate cannot acknowledge that pursuing policies that stop boats saves lives, stops putting people at risk and opens up opportunities for people in camps all around the world to have their chance of resettlement in this country. This government is denying them that chance because they simply cannot work out who they are and cannot pursue a coordinated or consistent policy on this matter. The coalition has the support of the Australian people on this issue because they know where we stand. By contrast, the Rudd government’s policies have failed and they know it.

Media Release : Boats K135 and K136 arrive as Curtin Detention Centre reopens for business

Fri, 11 Jun 2010 14:00:00 GMT

The reopening of the Curtin Detention Centre has been marked by the arrival of two more illegal boats within 24 hours carrying 119 people, according to Shadow Minister for Immigration and Citizenship, Scott Morrison and Shadow Minister for Justice, Customs and Border Protection, Michael Keenan said.

Mr Morrison said “The arrival of these latest 2 boats, carrying 119 people demonstrates why Kevin Rudd is spending hundreds of millions of taxpayers’ dollars re-opening detention centres closed by the Howard Government - his border protection policies have failed.

"In 2010 we have had 68 boats carrying 3,354 people so far. That's more than three per week. We have had seven boats carrying 336 people in just the last nine days,” he said.

“The unprecedented rate of illegal boat arrivals has overwhelmed our detention centres.

“In November 2007, there were just four people in detention who had arrived in Australia illegally by boat. Today there are more than 3,300 illegal boat arrivals in detention.

“Labor's border protection policies are also proving to be as inhumane as they are ineffective.

“There is nothing humane about a policy that has attracted 6,389 people to get on 136 leaky boats, increasing the number of children being detained from just 21 to more than 450 under Kevin Rudd's weak policies.

“Under Kevin Rudd the Curtin Detention Centre in remote Western Australia is now re-open for business.

“Those being transferred to Curtin are being detained indefinitely under Kevin Rudd's discriminatory asylum freeze. This is in stark conflict with the Government's stated detention principles which prohibit indefinite detention.

“It's another example of Kevin Rudd being all talk and no action, when it comes to principles he says he believes in.

“The only boats Kevin Rudd is stopping are those carrying minerals to our export markets. He needs to spend more time focussing on the profits of people smugglers than mining companies,” Mr Morrison said.

Mr Keenan said: “The influx of illegal boat arrivals has become so intense that the Labor Party now is forced to announce two new arrivals in one press release.

“Yet Kevin Rudd recently told his caucus that the Labor Party doesn’t intend to do anything to address the chaos on our borders.

“Only the Coalition has the resolve to acknowledge and address this crisis.

“The only way to ensure that Australia retains control of our immigration system and closes down people smugglers is to change the Government,” he said.

Media Release : K134: Another boat in distress highlights dangers of illegal arrivals

Mon, 07 Jun 2010 14:00:00 GMT

The arrival of yet another boat in distress again highlights the inherent dangers in illegal boat arrivals to Australia, Shadow Minister for Immigration and Citizenship, Scott Morrison and Shadow Minister for Justice, Customs and Border Protection, Michael Keenan said today.

“K134 is the third illegal boat to arrive in distress in less than a week. This is yet another reminder that there is nothing compassionate about the Rudd Government’s policies that encourage people to get on leaky boats and put their lives in the hands of people smugglers,” Mr Morrison said.

??“Under Kevin Rudd 6,270 people have now arrived illegally by boat. We will never know how many more people have perished trying to make the same journey. That’s why we need to stop the boats,” he said.?

“Reports that people smugglers are now charging less for passage on illegal boats, increases the risk that more and more people will be crammed onto leaky vessels as people smugglers pursue more profits, endangering more lives as well as jeopardising the safety of our Navy and Customs personnel.

“Today’s arrival also coincides with the transfer of yet more asylum seekers to the mainland, this time to a remote mining camp in Western Australia, and the imminent re-opening of the Curtin Detention Centre,” he said.

Mr Keenan said: “This is now five boats in five days as this Government continues its avoidance tactics on the issue of border protection.

“Like so many of his other promises, Rudd’s promise to secure Australia’s borders has been broken.

“This Prime Minister has no convictions – he pretends to be tough on border protection and then abandons his post the moment things start going wrong.

“The tsunami of boats that have followed since this Government weakened Australia’s border protection system has rattled Kevin Rudd.

“Yet instead of tackling the problem head on, this Government has instead opted to waste time and resources on more spin.

“This Government has failed to come clean to the Australian people over their latest policy failure, and failed to secure Australia’s borders,” he said.

Media Release : Transcript - Doorstop interview

Sun, 06 Jun 2010 14:00:00 GMT

Subjects: Opinion polls, Kevin Rudd’s failed immigration and border protection policies, Kevin Rudd’s great big new tax on mining, Labor’s political advertising campaign

SCOTT MORRISON:

Well, what we’ve seen today is that the Australian people I think are sending a very loud message to the Rudd Government and that is they have woken up to the betrayal that has been characteristic of Kevin Rudd. This is a Prime Minister who presented himself as one thing before the last election and is doing something completely different in government and I think what we’re seeing in the surveys that were released today is that the Australian public has grown tired of that betrayal and they’re letting Kevin Rudd know very clearly about their sense of disappointment and anger about his betrayal of them in government.

Now, what we’re also seeing today is the survey which highlights that there is very strong support for the Coalition’s border protection policy. Kevin Rudd has stopped listening to Australians on this issue and he is doing nothing about it. The Coalition has put forward a very strong border protection policy that was proven in government and we’re prepared to introduce again should we be elected later this year. So, Kevin Rudd has stopped listening to Australians on this issue. Boat arrivals are now occurring at the highest rate on record. We’ve gone from three per year to an average of three per week. There’s nothing compassionate about a policy that encourages people to get on boats. There were just 21 children being detained when we left office in November 2007. There are now 427 children who are being detained and the numbers continue to rise. Anyone who saw 60 Minutes last night will see once again just how perilous the journey can be.

We had four boats in 48 hours, just over the weekend and two of those boats were in distress, highlighting once again that it is not a humane or compassionate policy to do things that encourage people to get on boats and for people to put their lives in the hands of people smugglers.

If Kevin Rudd was as focused on destroying the profits of people smugglers as he is on taxing the profits of minerals companies then perhaps we wouldn’t have this problem. It would seem the only boats he’s trying to stop are the boats carrying iron ore and other minerals to export markets that are heading in the other direction. It highlights again that the Prime Minister’s political campaign on the mining tax is just that. Reports today that Shannon’s Way – a Labor firm that has worked for the Labor Party on their political campaigns in the past – is doing the work on the Government’s advertising campaign, this is another broken promise by Kevin Rudd where he raised expectations and has just completely failed to deliver on those expectations in government. Pulling out – out of Labor’s spin machine – a firm that has been recruited apparently to tell the facts. Well the only facts about Labor’s advertising campaign is it’s all about politics, it’s all about Kevin Rudd, it’s not about policy.

QUESTION:

It’s been a spectacular turnaround for Kevin Rudd as far as his popularity goes. Have you ever seen a bigger slump in such a short period of time for a political leader?

SCOTT MORRISON:

Well I think this is historic in terms of the way that Kevin Rudd’s betrayal has write large I think for the Australian people. When you make such big promises and not just what he said but what he allowed people to believe, then it’s not surprising really when people see through that and see that Kevin Rudd sought to play them, raising their expectations and raising their hopes and then so plainly going against that in government [inaudible] the Australian people have a right to feel very disappointed with the Prime Minister.

QUESTION:

Do you think this will bring new calls for Julia Gillard to step in?

SCOTT MORRISON:

Well that’s for the Labor Party to work out but what’s clear is whatever the jockey is, the horse is the same. It’s the Labor Government that wants to put a great big new tax on the minerals sector which puts a dagger into the heart of our prosperity for future Australians. We have the chairman of the Future Fund on the weekend give us a warning from the future which says this is a bad tax that will hurt our minerals sector and our economy more broadly. We have sovereign risk in this country now – sovereign risk. I never thought we would have a situation where people would put those two words together in relation to the policies of an Australian Government. Not since the Whitlam Government have we seen such an issue raised in the national community’s mind.

QUESTION:

We’ve seen in the papers today that Labor’s delaying sending people to Leonora. What’s happening here?

SCOTT MORRISON:

Well nothing really surprises me about the government’s failures on border protection. They are literally a rolled-gold bucket of failure. We have 2,500 people on Christmas Island now. They’re transferring people to the mainland, over a thousand have been transferred, we’ve got people lining up in our courts again. We’ve got out detention centres full again. We’ve got the Curtin centre closed by the Coalition being reopened. Their delays I’m sure will be the product of just simply departments trying to deal with the absolute volume of arrivals that has got completely out of hand. The only way to address this situation is to introduce policies that address the unprecedented arrival of illegal boats to Australia and this Government has no policies to do that, they have no resolve to do this and only the Coalition is providing that alternative.

QUESTION:

Just back on the Newspoll, Kevin Rudd’s rating is down but Mr Abbott’s rating is also quite low. I mean, what can be done to boost his approval rating?

SCOTT MORRISON:

I think what you see in Tony Abbott is a politician of conviction, of belief, of authenticity. He’s a politician that people can respect for his authenticity. What we have with Kevin Rudd is a politician who led people to believe one thing, not just what he said but how he acted, how he raised people’s hopes, particularly the hopes of young people back with Kevin 2007. Well, those young people who supported Kevin 07 would not recognise Kevin 10 and I think that’s what we’re seeing in the polls today.

QUESTION:

But what can you do, what can Mr Abbott do, do you think, that will boost his approval?

SCOTT MORRISON:

Well, Tony Abbott has been holding this Government to account and I think the reason that people now are seeing very plainly from this Government and particularly Kevin Rudd the hypocrisy that is writ large, is due entirely to the strong work and efforts of Tony Abbott. That is a very important job of an Opposition Leader and sometimes to do that you’re going to say some strong things that ring true and that’s what Tony’s done. He’s a politician that people can respect.

QUESTION:

The fact that primary support for the Greens is quite high for them, is that an indication that voters are disillusioned with both the Libs and Labor?

SCOTT MORRISON:

I think what we’re seeing in terms of what’s happened with the Greens is people again expressing their sense of betrayal about this Prime Minister. Now, they’ll ultimately make up their decision where they vote on election day, that’s for those to decide, but what I think the message coming loud and clear out of this poll and all the other polls we’ve seen most recently is this is a Prime Minister who has betrayed the Australian electorate.

[ends]

Media Release : Boat K133: Rudd hits new low with four boats in 48 hours

Fri, 04 Jun 2010 14:00:00 GMT

Four boats carrying 180 people in just 48 hours has set a new low for the Rudd Government, Shadow Minister for Immigration and Citizenship, Scott Morrison and Shadow Minister for Justice, Customs and Border Protection, Michael Keenan said today.

“Boats are arriving at will. This is second time four boats have turned up in such quick succession, the last time being immediately after the introduction of Labor's failed and discriminatory asylum freeze,” Mr Morrison said.

“On this latest occasion more people were on board and two of the four vessels were in distress. This is another clear demonstration of the inherent dangers of illegal boat arrivals both for passengers and our navy and border protection personnel,” he said.

“Kevin Rudd has put up the white flag on illegal boat arrivals.

“Only the Coalition will act, Kevin Rudd only has spin and excuses, this is no match for people smugglers who clearly have his measure,” he said.

Mr Keenan said: “The people smugglers are laughing at this Prime Minister and his weak attempts to try and restore any kind of order to Australia's borders.

“In just two days we have seen four boats arrive in defiance of this government, and deliver almost 200 unauthorized arrivals to Australia.

“Just as Australians finally adjusted to a rate of a boat a day, they now have to face a reality where two boats in one day is becoming the norm.

“This Government has lost all control of our borders and their right to be charged with the responsibility of protecting them.

“Two boats in one day may be the new rate now, but unless this Government takes action, the rate will only continue to rise,” he said.

Media Release : Boat K132: Another drop in Rudd's rolled gold bucket of failure

Fri, 04 Jun 2010 14:00:00 GMT

The arrival of the third boat in 24 hours is just another drop in Kevin Rudd's rolled gold bucket of failure, Shadow Minister for Immigration and Citizenship, Scott Morrison and Shadow Minister for Justice, Customs and Border Protection, Michael Keenan said today.

Mr Morrison told the NSW Liberal State Council in Penrith today that "the only boats Kevin Rudd was trying to stop were those with iron ore on them, and they were heading in the other direction.

“Kevin Rudd has tried to walk every side of the street on the asylum seeker issue and has taken a good trip around the nature strips as well,” he said.

“Kevin Rudd's asylum freeze has proved as ineffective as it is discriminatory. 26 boats carrying more than 1,100 people have now arrived in less than 2 months since the freeze was announced.

“The Curtin Detention Centre has been reopened to take those subject to the freeze. Legal challenges are being lodged in the High Court. There are 427 children being detained compared to just 21, when the Coalition left office and there has been a $1 billion blowout in the Government's budget on this issue.

“This is the evidence of failed policy and failed resolve that has attracted almost 6,200 people in 132 boats since Kevin Rudd rolled back the strong border protection regime he inherited from John Howard,” he said.

Mr Keenan said: “Three boat arrivals in 24 hours should send a reminder to this Government that Australia's border protection system remains in tatters.

“Over the past 24 hours Labor has used every trick in their book of spin to try and avoid scrutiny over these latest arrivals, instead of working to fix the source of the problem.

“The Australian people have wisened up to Labor's usual smoke and mirror tactics and will not be fooled by this latest attempt to spin these boats away.

“A Coalition government will rely on action and not spin to restore Australia’s border protection system.

“Only the Coalition has the resolve necessary to make the hard decisions and stop the boats from coming,” he said.

Media Release : K131: Kevin Rudd's daily double of boats

Thu, 03 Jun 2010 14:00:00 GMT

Two boats in one day is further proof that the Rudd Government’s border protection policies are a rolled gold bucket of failure according to Shadow Minister for Immigration and Citizenship, Scott Morrison and Shadow Minister for Justice, Customs and Border Protection, Michael Keenan.??

“Two boats arriving in one day as the Rudd Government moves 750 asylum seekers to the mainland shows the chaos of Labor’s failed immigration and border protection policies,” said Mr Morrison.??

“Kevin Rudd has delivered a rolled gold bucket of failure on border protection.

“Another boat in a matter of hours has become all too familiar under this Government.?? There have now been 25 boats carrying more than 1000 people since the Rudd government’s cynical election fix of freezing processing of asylum seekers.??

“As 750 asylum seekers leave Christmas Island for the mainland under this plan, more boats arrive and more are undoubtedly on the way. The policy has been as ineffective as it is discriminatory.

“The Coalition will restore the strong border protection regime that Kevin Rudd has abolished that has led to 131 boats illegally arriving carrying more than six thousand people.”

Mr Keenan said the Government was trying to hide the announcement of this latest arrival by delaying its announcement until after the evening news cycle.

“This afternoon the Minister announced the arrival of boat 130, without disclosing the time and location of the interception.

“Two hours later he announced the arrival of boat 131, reportedly intercepted about 10 nautical miles off Ashmore Island last night.

“The Minister is effectively avoiding public scrutiny over this Government’s massive failure on border protection by staggering the announcement of each boat arrival and lessening the impact each makes.

“This is a dishonest Government that prioritises spin over everything else.

“The people of Australia deserve better.”

Media Release : Boat K130 arrives but Rudd wants to stop the wrong boats

Thu, 03 Jun 2010 14:00:00 GMT

The arrival of boat K130, with 30 people on board, comes as Kevin Rudd works to stop the wrong boats, Shadow Minister for Immigration and Citizenship, Shadow Minister for Immigration and Citizenship, Scott Morrison and Shadow Minister for Justice, Customs and Border Protection, Michael Keenan said today.

“If Kevin Rudd was as serious about ending the profits of people smugglers as he is about ending the profits of mining companies in Australia then he would be implementing policies to stop illegal boat arrivals,” Mr Morrison said.

“The only boats Kevin Rudd wants to stop are those leaving Australia carrying iron ore from our mines,” he said.

“Figures from Senate Estimates reveal that, including this latest arrival, 6,083 people have now arrived illegally by boat since Kevin Rudd softened the Coalition’s strong immigration and border protection regime.

“This comes as the Rudd Government is reportedly planning to transfer 750 asylum seekers whose claims have not been tested, from Christmas Island to the mainland - the largest number of mainland transfers so far.

“These asylum seekers will be sent to an isolated mining community in Western Australia and to the Curtin Detention Centre near Derby which will reopen soon, meaning yet more border blow outs to add to the $1 billion immigration blow out this financial year.

“The Coalition has a clear plan to stop the boats. If elected, a Coalition government would – commence discussions to establish an off shore processing detention facility in another country, reintroduce Temporary Protection Visas and the 45 day rule, and stop the boats where circumstances allow.

“Labor has failed, only the Coalition has the policies and the will necessary to take the tough decisions needed to stop illegal boat arrivals,” Mr Morrison said.

Mr Keenan said: “Three Customs and Border Protection vessels have been sent to respond to this latest arrival. That’s three vessels that aren’t patrolling Australia’s borders.

“The rate at which these boats are arriving has left the Customs and Border Protection Service overstretched and under resourced,” he said.

“In his press release, the Minister has once again omitted key details regarding the circumstances of this latest arrival, including where and when the boat was intercepted.

“This is a typical smoke and mirrors ploy from a Government that is increasingly distancing itself from a problem it doesn’t have the resolve to fix.

“Only the Coalition has the resolve to take the necessary action to stop the boats from coming and restore Australia’s border protection system,” he said.

Media Release : More than 400 children detained under Kevin Rudd's failed border protection policies

Mon, 31 May 2010 14:00:00 GMT

Figures released by the Department of Immigration and Citizenship reveal that there are now 427 children being detained under the Rudd Government’s failed border protection policies, Shadow Minister for Immigration and Citizenship, Scott Morrison said today.

“When the Coalition left office there were just 21 children still being detained and these children were not being held in formal detention following Coalition reforms to detention policy. Under Kevin Rudd’s failed policies 427 children are now detained, due almost entirely to their arrival on boats,” Mr Morrison said.

“More children are now detained by the Department of Immigration and Citizenship than the total number of people who arrived illegally by boat in the six years prior to Kevin Rudd’s abolition of temporary protection visas,” he said.

“Under Kevin Rudd’s failed policies, the boats are arriving at record levels, and this includes children on boats, as Senator Evans noted in estimates last week.

“Under Kevin Rudd the number of people in detention has climbed from 449 on 23 November 2007, to 3,471 on 14 May 2010, a near seven fold increase. Of the almost 3,500 people who are currently being detained, more than 12% of those are children.

“The best way to stop children getting on boats is to stop the boats. That is what our policies are designed to achieve.

“In addition the Government’s asylum freeze that discriminates based on a person’s nationality means people will spend even longer in detention. This policy is as ineffective as it is discriminatory.

“More than 1,000 people on 23 boats have arrived illegally since the freeze was established. Next week Kevin Rudd will reopen the Curtin Detention Centre near Derby in WA. They have still refused to outline at what cost this facility has been reopened.

“People continue to come because of the lure of permanent residency that remains on the table from Kevin Rudd. The Coalition will abolish Labor’s asylum freeze and replace it with a temporary protection visa regime,” Mr Morrison said.

* Immigration detention population graph attached

Multimedia : Transcript - ABC1 Insiders

Sat, 29 May 2010 14:00:00 GMT

Subject: Shadow minister for immigration Scott Morrison joins Insiders to discuss the Government's mining tax ads and Coalition's new asylum seekers policy.

BARRIE CASSIDY, PRESENTER:

And overnight another boat has been boarded with 53 asylum seekers and two crew on board. The vessel managed to make it all the way to Flying Cove at Christmas Island before it was spotted.

Our program guest this morning is the shadow minister for immigration, Scott Morrison.

But just before he joins us let's hear now from the Minister for Finance, Lindsay Tanner, who was questioned on Meet The Press this morning about the Government's advertising blitz against the mining companies.

(Excerpt from Meet the Press, Channel Ten):

LAURIE OAKES, PRESENTER:

Well, who said this minister? "The bloated government advertising programs and politicians electioneering entitlements are simply cynical raids on the Treasury coffers to ensure political survival."

LINDSAY TANNER, FINANCE MINISTER:

Well, I suspect you've probably found a quote of mine.

That’s an entirely legitimate description of John Howard's regime. In fact he spent over $250 million on government advertising in his last year in office. Now in today's dollars that's about $280 million.

In our first two years we only spent about $200 million so we have been way, way more restricted on this front than John Howard.

(End of excerpt)

BARRIE CASSIDY:

And we're joined now by the shadow minister for immigration, Scott Morrison. Good morning, welcome.

SCOTT MORRISON, SHADOW IMMIGRATION MINISTER:

Good morning, Barrie. Good to be with you.

BARRIE CASSIDY:

I think what Lindsay Tanner was saying there is that okay, guilty, but not as guilty as the previous mob.

SCOTT MORRISON:

What they're guilty of, Barrie, is just mass hypocrisy. This is a Government that set its standard when it was in opposition. They said they were going to be all different about this. They said they were going to have these new standards, these new guidelines.

And just like on so many issues where they've knowingly and willingly raised expectations, they've fallen significantly short.

They set the test. Now the test is applied to them and he wants to play around with maths and figures and fudging numbers with inflation and all the rest of it.

The bottom line is these guys have walked away yet again from another of these big moral principles that they outlined in opposition and are found to be completely wanting. I mean it's just basically betrayal.

People can sometimes put up with people not doing that great a job but when they're betrayed they get very angry.

BARRIE CASSIDY:

Whether he adjusts for inflation or not though, there's no doubt they've still got a long way to go to match the record of the Howard government.

SCOTT MORRISON:

Well, they have to be matched on their own benchmark, Barrie. That's the point here. They set the benchmark. It's rolled gold. We'd never walk away from, or breach these conditions.

Well, they got rid of the auditor-general. No, he was going to look a little bit too closely at that.

And now when these standards come up well, no, we've got a national emergency here. We've got these compelling circumstances. We've got to rush these ads out because national emergency these days equates to bad polling figures for Kevin Rudd.

BARRIE CASSIDY:

I wonder though whether the question from the public is that will any major political party ever take an ethical position on this and stick with it?

SCOTT MORRISON:

Well again, the issue here is for Kevin. Kevin is the one who set the standard. He put it out there. He was the one who made a big moral issue out of this. And he's the one who's fallen from his own standard.

Whether it's the greatest moral challenge of our time with climate change or it's the greatest moral challenge of advertising he has fallen short from his own standard. He's let people believe something about him and now he's completely disappointed them yet again.

BARRIE CASSIDY:

Well, what the Greens are putting up this week is a bill. They want to legislate Kevin Rudd's initial position. They want the auditor-general reinstated. Will you support that?

SCOTT MORRISON:

Well, I'll leave that to others to give a response to. But what we learned this week, Barrie, was that this advice that he was going to be allowed to go ahead with his advertising campaign was released on Monday or Tuesday. That's when he made the decision.

Now Senate Estimates were going over DoFA's statements and they were going over the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet a couple of days later.

So the decision was taken before estimates. They refused to put it up for scrutiny before estimates. And now we find that they hand it out there on Friday and then all of a sudden go off to decide to take the Japanese to court over whaling.

I mean it was a week of spin that would make you dizzy.

BARRIE CASSIDY:

Yeah, sure. You've got strong views on what Kevin Rudd ought to do and I asked you a simple question: whether you would support the Greens' position. Will you?

SCOTT MORRISON:

Well, I'll leave that for Michael Ronaldson to respond to. They will make those calls in the Senate this week.

But in terms of what Kevin Rudd has done, look, I am responding to what he said he would do, Barrie, because he's the one who said it. He's the one who set the bar. And he's got to be judged on his own bar.

BARRIE CASSIDY:

Okay, let's talk now about the asylum seekers policy. And will this policy differ in any way from that that operated under the Howard government?

SCOTT MORRISON:

Well, as we've said Barrie, we haven't indicated what countries we might be negotiating with or where they might be.

There are obviously a lot of lessons that were learned over that period of time which we actually implemented in Government in terms of how detention facilities were actually run.

And there are important lessons there about how you run these centres and that was an issue that was very relevant at the time.

But in general terms these were policies that were abolished by the Rudd Government. We've seen 129 boats turn up since then, almost 6,000 people. That is a product of those policies significantly and we're saying well, we will put back what Labor has abolished.

BARRIE CASSIDY:

And you said you won't, you haven't named the countries and isn't that because you're going to have great difficulty finding any country to take part in this?

SCOTT MORRISON:

No, it's for the reasons that Alexander Downer said in his statement. And that is we're in opposition. Last time we did this we were in government. We were in a position to talk to other countries.

It not only prejudices the discussions that we might have in government but it's also frankly unfair on other countries who, you know, rightly have to deal with the government of the day and the policies that are of the government of the day.

Now this Government chose not to go down this path when it was faced with this problem and as a result the problem has continued to get worse and worse.

We have, Barrie, more people arriving today by boat in 2010 - 61 boats this year - than at any other time. It is a record rate of arrival in this year.

BARRIE CASSIDY:

But isn't that because of enormous push factors?

SCOTT MORRISON:

Well no. Apparently this year, according to the Government, that everything's settling down in Afghanistan and Sri Lanka. But this year more than any year we've had as many boats and more people arrive in 2010, in the first five months, than we had arrive all of last year which is when they said the troubles were there.

Now last year we had a 29 per cent increase in asylum applications in Australia. Around the world it was flat.

BARRIE CASSIDY:

You say it's not because of enormous push factors. I'm just quoting Malcolm Turnbull there. He gives an interview on Sunday Profile later on today on ABC Radio. And he said, "enormous" push factors, "gigantic" in fact. So you're going to have an interesting discussion with him in the party room when it's finally discussed there?

SCOTT MORRISON:

Well, the policies we announced on Thursday were completely within the announcement that Malcolm made last November. It was Malcolm that announced that we would have temporary protection visas. It was Malcolm that announced that no one would be processed onshore as the Rudd Government was proposing to do.

So these are the policies that we've always held, Barrie. We've held these policies for a long time. There's nothing terribly new about them. And our resolve to implement them I think it is on the record.

So it will be an interesting discussion and I'm expecting overwhelming support.

BARRIE CASSIDY:

Yeah, he says in fact that he's looking forward to it. So you will take him on on that issue and on others?

SCOTT MORRISON:

Well, the push factors, Barrie, as we all know have been around forever. Push factors are not new sadly. There are 10.5 million refugees around the world today.

There were around about 12 million back in 1999 through to 2001 and when we faced the last surge. The number of asylum applications back in that time when we faced the last surge was over 50 per cent higher than it is today.

So look, push factors are always around. What hasn't always been around in the last two years is the fact that the Rudd Government has abolished the strong border protection policies they inherited. And that's what caused the change and that's why people are on boats.

BARRIE CASSIDY:

Why didn't you and Tony Abbott take this to the party room before you announced it? Again, Malcolm Turnbull says that he was often criticised for not taking policies to the party room. But at least he took the climate change issue to the party room and gave everybody an opportunity. So why did you not do it this time?

SCOTT MORRISON:

Well, we had an extensive discussion on the back bench policy committee on this back in February, Barrie. I certainly remember it. It went for over an hour. And there were views canvassed there. And so no one was in any doubt about the views of a number of individuals.

And no one was in any doubt, Barrie, about the views of the vast overwhelming majority of the party room on this matter. This a matter that has been debated and talked about in our party room in government and opposition for more than 10 years. The policies that we announced sit entirely within the frame of things we've done in government.

And we took the decision prior to announcing it to talk to those specific individuals who we knew had had a long-standing view on this matter. We did have a long conversation with them, over half an hour, on these things.

And it was a good opportunity to discuss the issues where they had concerns and said openly - Tony and I said openly - we know that you've had these views for a long time, we respect that. Unlike in the Labor Party, these people weren't going to be locked up in a basement somewhere. They're free to speak their mind.

But our policy is different. Our view is different and that will be what we do in government.

BARRIE CASSIDY:

And when you say overwhelming the party supports your decision, how high would you put it?

SCOTT MORRISON:

Oh look, it's overwhelming, Barrie. It's overwhelming. Talk to my colleagues. I think you'd get the same view.

BARRIE CASSIDY:

Just go back to the Pacific Solution though and in interview after interview with asylum seekers who have been through the process they talk about hopelessness and depression and even attempted suicides. Does that trouble you?

SCOTT MORRISON:

These are very hard issues, Barrie. And the most significant thing we need to do is stop the flow of boats.

Today there are around 384 children who are in detention or detention-like, sorry detention-like facilities because they're not, we took them out from behind formal detention, so they're not in those facilities. There are 384 there.

There were 21 when we left office. And the fact is when boats come there are children on boats. When boats come people are in detention. People are in this uncertainty. And so what you need to do is make sure that the detention centres aren't full and their people aren't coming.

I mean if this Government spent as much time worrying about the profits of people smugglers as they do about the mining tax then I think our border protection policies would be a lot stronger.

BARRIE CASSIDY:

But nevertheless you do plan to send them off to countries like Nauru and there have been experiences similar to what I've just described. And your rationale seems to be you punish these people - because surely you accept it's punishment - you punish them to deter others.

SCOTT MORRISON:

No I don't accept it's punishment, Barrie. I accept that it's processing them in a location offshore where their asylum claims are assessed in accordance with the UNHCR guidelines and a decision is made about whether they're a legitimate refugee or not.

If they are, they get to come to Australia on a temporary protection visa and they're provided with that protection.

Now you know we haven't said where we're going to put them, Barrie, for the reasons that I outlined before. But we shouldn't just assume that the way the detention centres and places will be run will be in any way that is inhumane and in any way that won't seek to do our level best to ensure people are treated properly, as they should be in detention.

BARRIE CASSIDY:

Well for it to work I'm sure you would concede you'll need the cooperation of Indonesia. And yet just this week a foreign affairs spokesman quoted in The Australian said, "third country processing has not been well received in the region." How are you going to win their support?

SCOTT MORRISON:

Well, one of the things you've got to do to win I think broad regional support, Barrie, is show you're very serious about this issue. This Government has not been prepared, the Rudd Government, to take the sugar off the table as Yudhoyono calls it.

And our policies, our pull factors under our policies are creating a problem for people in the region and we need to do what we need to do on our side of the fence first to build trust.

Now, I haven't said and Tony has not said what countries we would seek to place these facilities in. And so whether, you know, the Indonesian government or any other government may express a view; when we're in government and have those discussions, if we're elected, then we'll have the opportunity to speak openly with them about our own policies and how these measures might work.

And at that time people can make their judgments about whether they are going to be effective and whether they'll by successful.

BARRIE CASSIDY:

Well, Tony Abbott also said that in some circumstances you will turn back the boats. What circumstances would they be?

SCOTT MORRISON:

Well, one of the reasons we released this policy, Barrie, was to outline those circumstances and they are in the policy.

It's very clear that you do need for example the cooperation of the country to which you are returning those boats because there is an obligation under the UN convention that they will, on our part, that they would not then refouler them to a country from which they are claiming they are fleeing persecution. So you do need the regional cooperation.

This happens in a very limited set of circumstances. Obviously the vessel needs to be seaworthy and secured properly.

Now I'm not suggesting this is going to happen with every other boat. In fact it only happened to the best of my knowledge on four occasions. Senator Evans said it happened in seven occasions while we were in Government. So this is not the majority of cases. It's very specific and we've been very clear about what those circumstances are.

Kevin Rudd promised this before the last election, as you know - said what none of the circumstances were and then did nothing about it.

BARRIE CASSIDY:

But then you did say that the vessels need to be seaworthy. Now that just invites people smugglers to disable the vessels and that in turn puts lives at risk.

SCOTT MORRISON:

Well, I also said they need to be secured as well, Barrie. So look, these are the assessments that are made at sea.

And where people are in a position where their vessel is not seaworthy then, as has happened more recently, they'll be put on board one of our vessels and in these cases, depending on where our offshore facility would be and which is closest, they will be taken to the facility. And that may well be to an offshore location.

BARRIE CASSIDY:

And just finally on that story in the Sydney papers today on the aged-care facilities. Is that something that the Opposition has been across?

SCOTT MORRISON:

Well, it's very disturbing. I mean, I read those reports this morning and it's something we should all be disturbed about, seeing people treated in this way.

And when you think about all the billions that have been spent and wasted, when you think about whether it's public housing or whether it's on school halls and all the rest of it, and aged care facilities remain in that standard after blowing so many billions, I think the Government has a lot to answer for as to why aged care got none of that attention when they were...

Maybe they didn't think there would be polling stations at aged care facilities and so they weren't prepared to spend those billions of stimulus funds on those projects.

But I think there is clearly some explaining to do and I think all Australians would want to see our senior Australians looked after well.

BARRIE CASSIDY:

Scott Morrison, thanks for your time this morning.

SCOTT MORRISON:

Thanks very much, Barrie.

Media Release : Illegal boat arrivals eclipse 2009 tally in just five months

Fri, 28 May 2010 14:00:00 GMT

The latest illegal boat arrival carrying 55 people has matched last year's total number of arrivals in less than five months, Shadow Minister for Immigration and Citizenship, Scott Morrison and Shadow Minister for Justice, Customs and Border Protection, Michael Keenan said today.

“Kevin Rudd should be more interested in stopping the profits of people smugglers than he is in the destroying the profits of our mining sector,” Mr Morrison said.

“The latest boat, K129, is the 61st to arrive this year. This is the same number that arrived throughout all of 2009, the only difference is that more people have turned up on these 61 boats,” he said.

“In 2010 we have now had more than 3,000 people arrive, compared to around 2,800 in 2009. This is also more than half the total number of people to have arrived illegally in the 129 boats since Kevin Rudd first started rolling back the Coalition’s strong border protection regime in August 2008.

“The continued escalation of arrivals this year underscores the announcement made this week by the Coalition to restore the policies that Labor abolished, with temporary protection visas, universal off shore processing and turning boats around where we are able to do so.

“Kevin Rudd's border protection policies have failed. Our detention centres are filling up, the costs are blowing out and the boats keep arriving.

“Kevin Rudd refuses to take the hard decisions needed to stop the boats that puts people’s lives at risk and allows people smugglers to continue their profits.

“Only the Coalition will restore what Labor has abolished and introduce the polices that are need and have been proven in the past to stop the boats,” he said.

Mr Keenan said: “This government has run out of chances to prove it can keep Australia’s borders safe.

“This is the 61st time this year that this government has failed the Australian people on border protection. Last week we outlined how a Coalition government will stop the boats from coming.

“Only the Coalition has the resolve to restore control of our borders. We have done it before and will do it again,” he said.

Multimedia : Transcript and audio link - ABC Radio National Breakfast

Thu, 27 May 2010 14:00:00 GMT

Click on the link at the bottom of the page to listen to the interview

Subjects: The Coalition’s policy for restoring sovereignty and control to Australia’s borders.

EandOE

FRAN KELLY:

Scott Morrison, welcome to Breakfast.

SCOTT MORRISON:

Good morning, Fran.

FRAN KELLY:

Now, Scott Morrison, already we read in one newspaper today that Indonesia has rejected your Pacific solution, saying it won’t work; the idea hasn’t been well received in the region in the past. Without Indonesia on board you can’t stop the boats, can you?

SCOTT MORRISON:

Well, I think one of the reasons why the Indonesians have such a difficulty with Australia at the moment is the level of resolve being shown by our own Government to take matters into their…

FRAN KELLY:

Well, they were responding to your policy.

SCOTT MORRISON:

I’ll just finish that answer. One of the reasons they’ve got this problem is because this Government hasn’t shown the resolve to address the situations on our side of the fence and the policies we announced yesterday were all about addressing the issues on our side of the fence, the pull factors that have led since TPVs were abolished to 6,000 people turning up and 128 boats. That’s why we’re having this discussion.

FRAN KELLY:

Tony Abbott said yesterday we’ll turn back the boats. Do you mean you’re policies will discourage smuggling or that if the boats come you will literally turn them around with the Navy’s help?

SCOTT MORRISON:

Well, as we said yesterday, and in fact as the Prime Minister said he would before the last election, we have said where the circumstances allow… we went into a bit more detail about those circumstances yesterday, that we would pursue that and we would do that. But these circumstances I couldn’t say are commonplace. That’s why you need to have a suite of measures. There’s no just one measure. It’s not just TPVs, it’s not just offshore processing, it’s not just turning the boats back, it’s all of these in concert with the things we’ve already said about supporting regional cooperation and international measures. You’ve got to do all of them. but we wouldn’t be having this conversation, and I think Michelle was right when she said, the reason these ideas are being contemplated again is because the boats have come again and because the border protections of the Government have failed. That’s why we’re having the conversation.

FRAN KELLY:

Yeah, but you can’t promise that the boats will stop, can you?

SCOTT MORRISON:

Well, of course, you know, Fran, we’ll reintroduce measures that worked last time and that’s the guarantee that we have, the guarantee of our record and our performance in government. This Government has no record on this issue, they have certainly no answer. They’ve only created problems and, as I say, that’s why we are now in this situation and, as Alexander Downer said yesterday, that’s why we’re in the position of having to, you know, re-introduce these types of measures.

FRAN KELLY:

You know, you keep saying they worked last time. There’s plenty evidence, people keep this in reply, temporary protection visas didn’t work last time. They were introduced in 1999. There were 3,721 people arrived then and then 2001 there were 5,516 who arrived. No deterrence there obviously.

SCOTT MORRISON:

Well, Fran, it’s never one measure. That’s what I just said and when all the measures culminate together that’s when we brought the boats down to an average of three per year for six years. But, equally Fran, on your logic, on the basis of TPVs being abolished we’ve had 6,000 people turn up since. So…

FRAN KELLY:

Which just goes to show that perhaps it’s about people movement rather than measures here.

SCOTT MORRISON:

Well, no, what actually happened in August of 2008 is we saw things turn around completely and it wasn’t just that one decision, Fran, it was a series of decisions that rolled back a series of measures, people being transferred to the mainland, the absolute bungling of the Oceanic Viking issue by this Government. So, it’s a series of failed policies and flawed decisions and a lack resolve that’s led to the problem we’re in. Now, we want to turn that around. This is not unlike the debt issue. All the hard decisions we had to take in Government have been undone by this Government and we find ourselves back in exactly the same situation.

FRAN KELLY:

Some of the decisions you took in Government have, were pretty hard line. There’s been plenty of evidence, for instance, that measures like the Pacific Solution, putting people on Nauru and Manus Island and temporary protection visas caused psychological trauma to detainees. We spoke earlier on the program to refugee lawyer, David Mann. Let’s have a listen.

David Mann: The extremely damaging effects of temporary protection visas and offshore processing policies have been known and well documented for years and the Opposition’s proposals represent its decision to re-introduce policies which they know cause pain and suffering to vulnerable people, including women, children and families.

FRAN KELLY:

Policies that cause pain and suffering to women and children. You must have seen these studies and the damage done to some detainees because of the policies. Do you not care?

SCOTT MORRISON:

Yesterday and the day before in Senate Estimates, we were talking about a situation in which a sense has largely been confirmed about a boat that left Indonesia last October, over a hundred people on it, Fran. We’ve never seen it again. People are dying on boats. In the six years before this government abolished temporary protection visas…

FRAN KELLY:

People died on boats after TPVs. Look at the SIEV X.

SCOTT MORRISON:

Let me finish. There were 305 people turned up in boats over six years. Now since then, we’ve had almost 6,000. When we left government, there were 21 children in alternative detention. Today there are 386. So you can’t tell me these policies that this government has pursued have been in favour of discouraging people getting on boats and risking their lives. That’s what’s happening. It needs to stop.

FRAN KELLY:

That practise of people getting on boats and risking their lives does need to stop but the point is the policies we put in place here, there is plenty of evidence to show that they psychologically damage people – very, very horrible psychological damage. You must be aware of that.

SCOTT MORRISON:

Well Fran, these are difficult decisions and what we would endeavour to do as we did in government and the lessons we learnt in 2006 when we introduced changes to the way detention policy was managed. These are lessons that can be applied into the future with our policies in government again. So, I don’t think you can leap to the conclusion that by seeking to place people in a detention facility off shore that that in any way would be any worse for people in detention and what the government is proposing putting them in Derby and this government’s policy on temporary protection visas is hypocritical because they’ve had this asylum freeze which discriminates against a person’s nationality and puts people in an unending round of detention purely because they are of a certain nationality. Now, we’ve said we will abolish that policy Fran and we think that’s the right and humane thing to do.

FRAN KELLY:

Scott Morrison I’m sure we will be speaking about this more between now and the election. Thank you very much for joining us.

SCOTT MORRISON:

Thanks, Fran.

Media Release : Transcript - Sky News PM Agenda

Wed, 26 May 2010 14:00:00 GMT

Subject: The Coalition’s policy for restoring sovereignty and control to Australia’s borders.

KIERAN GILBERT:

Can you give a guarantee that the boats would stop under the Coalition’s policy?

SCOTT MORRISON:

Well, we don’t have to give guarantees because we have our record in government. People know what our policies did last time in government. We know that we went to an average of just three boats per year when we employed these types of mechanisms before. We now have an average of three boats, in fact more than three boats, arriving per week.

KIERAN GILBERT:

But you can’t guarantee it, can you? Tony Abbott earlier in the year, in March, said John Howard stopped the flow. There is no reason to suggest any future government could not do the same thing. But today there’s no such guarantee?

SCOTT MORRISON:

We won’t rest until this problem is addressed. That’s our commitment. That’s our guarantee and we’ve got the guarantee of our record in government that showed what our resolve was and what our results are. This is a government that has no policy on this issue. One hundred and twenty eight boats have arrived on their watch since they started with the process with abolishing TPVs in August of 2008 and the armada has flowed since.

KIERAN GILBERT:

Okay. Let me clarify something else then – this was referred to in the parliament as well by the Prime Minister – did this issue go to the party room or not, did you take this issue, this policy to the party room and get its approval from the rest of your colleagues?

SCOTT MORRISON:

Well, we have lots of internal processes about how we make decisions and the backbench and backbench members in particular we consulted and spoke to prior to this announcement today. There were consultations and discussions I was involved in as far back as February on these matters and there’s been a long deliberative process. As you know Tony announced in February the formation of a Border Protection Committee of Shadow Cabinet, which is chaired by Michael Keenan, and so all of these internal processes have had a pretty good work out.

KIERAN GILBERT:

But you are critical of the government for having its kitchen table cabinet, for centralising all its decisions, but this didn’t go to the party room this policy?

SCOTT MORRISON:

I’ve just outlined a backbench committee, a Border Protection Committee of Shadow Cabinet, Shadow Cabinet talking to backbenchers, I mean it is a well supported policy, it is Coalition policy and it’s the policy we’ll implement in government.

KIERAN GILBERT:

Well, the simple question is; why didn’t the policy, the finalised policy go to the party room? Were you concerned that there would be some vocal critics, the likes of Petro Georgiou, Russell Broadbent, Judith Troeth, Judi Moylan, these moderates who would not be happy with this policy?

SCOTT MORRISON:

Well I spoke to Petro this morning before the announcement, I spoke to others equally, they were advised of the announcement….

KIERAN GILBERT:

What did he say to you? What did Petro Georgiou say?

SCOTT MORRISON:

You can ask Petro, I’m not going to go into those conversations. But you know there’s no surprise….

KIERAN GILBERT:

You can’t use profanities is that what….

SCOTT MORRISON:

No, no that’s not it. Look, we respect and I respect in particular that there are a number of our members who have opposed these types of measures when we were in government. They’ve had a consistent view on this matter. I respect that. Our policy is different to what they would prefer and unlike in the Labor Party we haven’t locked them up in a basement somewhere, they’re free to say what they want to say. But that’s our policy, that’s what it will be, the people smugglers know it, the Australian people know it.

KIERAN GILBERT:

But after the temporary protection visas, if we look to some of the specifics in the policy now, when they were introduced in 1999 and the following year 2000, there was actually a spike in the number of asylum seekers after the Coalition introduced these the first time around. So there was actually a spike in the number of people trying….

SCOTT MORRISON:

The actual number of boats declined which people seem to overlook but what is important is the full suite of measures when they come together. So we had temporary protection visas, we had the introduction of off shore processing, which ultimately meant the off shore processing of people in another country. There were a series of measures that all culminated to get us to a position where we stopped the boats. No one measure in isolation is the silver bullet to this issue. All of them worked together and that’s what we’ve announced today.

KIERAN GILBERT:

But Scott, you know that temporary protection visas saw a trebling of the number of women and children seeking or jumping on boats because you don’t have family reunions, you don’t allow family unions, so you’ve got kids and women making this very desperate bid to get here?

SCOTT MORRISON:

Well I can tell you how many children there were in detention like facilities, community detention, alternative detention when we left office – there were 21 – there are almost 400 in those facilities today.

Now, that’s what happens when you have boats arrive. If [inaudible] there are no women and children on boats and we will stop the boats and under Labor’s policies, since they abolished TPVs, so when the TPVs were abolished, we’ve had 128 boats arrive since and we’ve had women and children on those boats.

KIERAN GILBERT:

But don’t you concede that there is a problem here when you don’t allow any family reunion. For people who are here for a longer term period, if [inaudible] they come out, men, they do want to see their wives and kids that they’re going to make that bid on the boat rather than wait the three years that they might have to wait, probably longer?

SCOTT MORRISON:

Well as we saw last time people started making decisions not to get on boats. What we saw last time was the people smugglers couldn’t go to potential clients if you like, and say part with $20,000 or $5,000 US dollars and you’ve got guaranteed permanent residency almost in Australia. Now, under a Coalition Government a people smuggler cannot say that.

KIERAN GILBERT:

So you’re not worried that the more kids and mothers, wives will be jumping on boats as a result of your policy?

SCOTT MORRISON:

Well what I know is as a result of Kevin Rudd’s policies we’ve had more children do that in the last two years then we had in the previous six years of the Coalition Government when TPVs were operative.

KIERAN GILBERT:

But TPVs, these temporary protection visas, I think the government refers to a figure of 95 per cent, 95 per cent of the people on those temporary protection visas ended up being classed as permanent refugees anyway, they stayed here?

SCOTT MORRISON:

Well, we’ll assess their cases and their claims when their temporary protection visas expire but the government themselves have introduced…

KIERAN GILBERT:

Ninety-five per cent, that’s a huge number.

SCOTT MORRISON:

The government has introduced a freeze on asylum applications from Sri Lanka and Afghanistan. They’ve done that because they say that circumstances change in the home country. Now, our policy recognises that and it says that you’ll get a temporary protection visa and over the course of the time you’re here whether it’s six months or up to three years, if circumstances have changed and you’re able to return to your country, well you will. Now what this government says, is that we’re going to impose a discriminatory on nationality policy which freezes people in detention centres for at least six months for Afghans and three months for Sri Lankans and that’s their solution. Now we’ve said we’ll abolish that. We will abolish that freeze and I challenge the members of the Labor caucus to raise that. Only Michael Danby seems to be prepared to stand up to the Prime Minister on this. That is an abominable policy which acknowledges that these things change, we’ve always known that things change and that’s why we have TPVs.

KIERAN GILBERT:

They might change but only for a small percentage according to the numbers, 95 per cent of people who were on the TPVS, the temporary visa, 95 per cent ended up staying here anyway. So you create this uncertainty, this sense of limbo for no reason, because they are genuine refugees.

SCOTT MORRISON:

Well, I can’t predict the future, Kieran, and I can’t predict what would happen at the end of six months or three years but that would be the arrangement and the government agrees with us. That’s why they’ve put a six month freeze on Afghan applications and a three months freeze on Sri Lankans. Their Cabinet has got to meet to decide whether they’re going to extend those or not. We’re saying that’s an unnecessary and frankly inhumane way to handle what is the realities of this situation. Assess their claim as of now and if they need to have a TPV of six months, well give them a TPV of six months.

KIERAN GILBERT:

What about this 45 day rule that it asylum seekers don’t make a bid for asylum within 45 days that they miss out?

SCOTT MORRISON:

No, they don’t miss out. What they…

KIERAN GILBERT:

They can claim refugee status beyond that?

SCOTT MORRISON:

You can claim refugee status at any time while you’re in Australia so if someone is here on a valid visa, they’re a student for example and they’re studying, they can claim asylum at any time during that period. Now what we’re saying is you are required to make an application for asylum within 45 days of arriving if at some point you do it after that and you are no longer on a valid visa or you’re an overstayer. Then, you can make your claim but you won’t have any access to any of the ongoing income support or any other forms of support to sustain you while you go through potentially years and years and years of appeals. So, what we have is a situation…

KIREAN GILBERT:

But, what happens if, can I just ask you a question on that issue?

SCOTT MORRISON:

Yeah, sure.

KIERAN GILBERT:

What happens if a genuine refugee arrives here, struggles with English, has had a traumatised time getting here. They’ve got kids and so on and then you’ve got to say, well, you’ve got to get your act together within a month and a half otherwise bad luck, we won’t give you any support.

SCOTT MORRISON:

No, if they’re here on a valid visa. They might be here for two or three years. They can make their…

KIREAN GILBERT:

What happens if they’re not? What happens if they’re refugees?

SCOTT MORRISON:

If they’ve arrived illegally, well then they’re subject to our TPV policy, they make their claim. If their claim is rejected, well they’re going home. If they’re onshore, they’re able to pursue it in the courts and what we’re saying is if you get rejected as an asylum seeker in Australia and you’ve had your determination and it’s over and we would like you to go home we’re saying if you haven’t made your claim within 45 days, well, you won’t get any ongoing [inaudible] in terms of income or other things while you potentially pursue your appeals endlessly.

KIERAN GILBERT:

But, aren’t you expecting people sometime, as I say, after traumatised periods struggling to find their way when they get here. You want them to have this organised within a month and a half of being here.

SCOTT MORRISON:

No, no, if they’re on a valid visa, which could be years, they will continue to get whatever support they’re entitled to while that visa is in place. What this does is for those who get to the end of say their student visa and there’ll be a number of those coming up as the Government knows in the next sort of 12 to 18 months. If they get to the end of their visa and they don’t want to go home and decide to claim asylum to lengthen their stay…

KIREAN GILBERT:

They’ve got to do it within 45 days.

SCOTT MORRISON:

No, they can still make their claim, but if they’re unsuccessful with their claim we are not going to continue to provide them income support and so on while they’re pursuing an appeal against their rejection.

KIERAN GILBERT:

Ok.

SCOTT MORRISON:

Those who are, those who make their claim and get a yes, well, they’re in Australia under a, on a visa.

KIREAN GILBERT:

What about the countries that you’re going to negotiate with, the Opposition Leader wouldn’t state specific countries, but it’s pretty obvious though, isn’t it?

SCOTT MORRISON:

No.

KIERAN GILBERT:

I mean, where else are you going to send them? It’s got to be a Pacific Solution doesn’t it?

SCOTT MORRISON:

Well, as I said…

KIREAN GILBERT:

You’re not going to send them to the Atlantic or to the Indian Ocean, surely?

SCOTT MORRISON:

Well, we could get out an atlas and you could run through all the countries if you like, Kieran, but we’re not going to speculate on it. This is too important a policy to jeopardise by flagging potential countries in Opposition. We’re not in government. You do these negotiations in government. Alexander…

KIERAN GILBERT:

It’s got to happen with the neighbours. I mean, if you’re going to have offshore processing, you’re not going to send them to Stockholm or to, you know, Oslo to process these people are you?

SCOTT MORRISON:

Others can speculate. We won’t jeopardise this policy by that speculation in Opposition. Alexander Downer, Foreign Minister for eleven-and-a-half years, has supported us in this view and has issued a statement saying that he’s quite confident that a location could be secured on agreeable terms and that’s based on many years experience with the region.

KIERAN GILBERT:

But it’s got to be Nauru, PNG, something like that, doesn’t it? I mean, just the logistics don’t seem to make sense beyond that.

SCOTT MORRISON:

Well, as I say, others will speculate, Kieran. We won’t.

KIERAN GILBERT:

Ok. Why would Indonesia accept the boats being turned back? If they’ve got tens of thousands of internally displaced people themselves, why would… you say you want to turn the boats back but Indonesia’s going to say, well, I’m sorry, we’ve got tens of thousands of our own internal refugees that we’ve got to deal with.

SCOTT MORRISON:

Well, Kevin Rudd said he’d turn the boats back and Kevin Rudd never even tried to turn the boats back. We don’t pretend that this is an easy thing to do and in the policy released today we set out the circumstances that would need to be satisfied and that includes Indonesia being willing, if that is indeed where you were trying to return the boat to…

KIERAN GILBERT:

That’s unlikely, isn’t it?

SCOTT MORRISON:

Well, it’s certainly unlikely under Kevin Rudd’s Government because I don’t think the Indonesians would ever accept that this Government is deadly serious about this issue, and the sorts of policies that we’ve announced and that we’ve worked in government before… I mean, we returned four boats when we were in government, with the support of the Indonesian Government. We didn’t go out and do press conferences on it and big note ourselves about phone calls to the Indonesia President, we just got on with the job. Now, we need to rebuild that trust with the Indonesian Government and we think these policies are a good way of doing that.

KIERAN GILBERT:

Ok, there are major issues at the moment… you’re a former Housing spokesman. Cost of living, affordability, interest rates and so on. Why is the Coalition focusing on this specific issue? Is it because you know it’s politically potent?

SCOTT MORRISON:

Well, I’m the Shadow Minister for Immigration so you’d expect me to be focusing on Immigration, Kieran…

KIERAN GILBERT:

Obviously, but today the Opposition Leader…

SCOTT MORRISON:

Not Housing, I used to focus on Housing.

KIERAN GILBERT:

But, you know, at the end of Parliament this week, it’s Newspoll next week. Tony Abbott gets up today with this big border security policy. Why not focus on some of the other issues around today?

SCOTT MORRISON:

Look, we asked one question of this today in Question Time and asked a series of questions on a whole range of other issues.

KIERAN GILBERT:

So, it’s not about the politics of this?

SCOTT MORRISON:

We have always had a strong view in this issue, I don’t think anyone could discount that. We’re not newcomers to this debate or newcomers to these ideas or these policies. We wouldn’t be having this conversation if 120 boats hadn’t turned up since they abolished TPVs and almost 6,000 people have arrive. If Labor’s policies had worked there’s be no debate. They’ve failed, we’re going to restore what Labor abolished.

KIERAN GILBERT:

Scott Morrison, as always appreciate your time. Thank you.

SCOTT MORRISON:

Thanks, Kieran.

Media Release : Joint Media Release - Restoring sovereignty and control to our borders

Wed, 26 May 2010 14:00:00 GMT

A Coalition Government will reintroduce off shore processing of illegal boat arrivals in another country as part of series of measures to stop the boats and protect our borders.

The Coalition will restore the strong border protection regime that the Rudd Government has since abandoned.

Denying people smugglers a product to sell – permanent residency in Australia – is critical to crippling their business and stopping the flow of boat arrivals. Any policy that continues to provide an incentive to this business is neither tough nor compassionate.

In government, we will commence discussions to establish an off shore processing detention facility in another country. This off shore facility will be the destination for anyone seeking to enter Australia illegally by boat.

We will not prejudice these discussions by canvassing potential locations in opposition. These are matters that can only be canvassed government to government.

The Coalition will also reintroduce temporary protection visas and require those on these visas who receive benefits to make a contribution through a ‘work for benefits’ scheme, as is required of Australian citizens.

We will require those who have arrived legally on shore to once again make any claim within 45 days.

We will turn back boats where circumstances allow.

These policies have worked before to ensure that it is the Australian Government that decides who comes to our country and the circumstances under which they come – not people smugglers or those who have the means to pay them.

Since the Rudd Government abandoned these policies in August 2008, illegal boat arrivals have gone from three a year to more than three a week. This has led to a $1 billion blow out in immigration detention costs around Australia.

Their record of 128 illegal boat arrivals carrying almost 6,000 people demonstrates that the Rudd Government has lost control of our borders.

The Coalition has a proven track record of being prepared to do what is necessary to control our borders and protect the integrity and fairness of our immigration system.

Speech : Budget Reply Speech

Tue, 25 May 2010 14:00:00 GMT

Speech

Budget Reply Speech

Wednesday 26th May 2010

This is a budget that betrays the truth by a government that have betrayed the trust of the Australian people. The government have lost their mandate not just for their failures, which are many and costly, but more significantly for their betrayal. Many governments from time to time have failed. But betrayal is the reserve of the Rudd government. The electorate sometimes forgives failures, especially for a first-term government, but the electorate is right to punish betrayal. The Rudd government have betrayed those for whom they willingly, knowingly and falsely raised hopes and expectations before the last election. They will now be held to account for those expectations at the election. They will be held to account for the things they led people to believe, for the things that they allowed people to believe and for the things they talked up so that people believed. It will be for what the government have failed to do in their own actions and the way that they have done it, whether it be the home insulation bungles, the budget blow-outs, the failure on border protection or the Building the Education Revolution debacles.

All of these things they will be judged for, but the one I think they will be judged most harshly for is the way they led Australians to believe it would be a very different story under a Rudd government. To that question they cannot give an answer. They may try and seek to point to clever statements on carefully prepared notes that were circulated before the last election, but what the electorate will hold the government to account for is what they were led to believe.

This is a budget that relies on false assumptions. It is a budget that spends the future today, creating a burden of debt once again for our future: $93.7 billion in net debt, a $6.5 billion annual interest payment created by an addiction to spending, and deficits of $40.8 billion in this budget that has been announced and $57.1 billion for the year that is about to conclude. This government’s reckless spending requires borrowings of a staggering $700 million a week. This is an extraordinary figure. As each second ticks by, as each day passes, the debt bill continues to rise—and it is a debt bill that is necessary only to satisfy this government’s addiction to spending. Remember it was the Prime Minister, when in opposition, who declared to the Australian people that this reckless spending must stop, raising those expectations, making a suggestion that somehow he was going to maintain the consistency of economic management that was offered by the Howard-Costello team. But what we have seen is spend after spend, deficit after deficit, and a debt that continues to spiral.

By contrast, the coalition in responding to this budget has outlined real measures for savings—real measures that are designed to get a budget back on track, measures that do not rely on the high-tax-and-spend model of Labor governments both today and in the past, but most specifically today because this government has really taken the perception of Labor’s administration in terms of fiscal matters to a completely new level, leaving in its wake the Whitlam government, leaving in its wake the governments that have borne the Labor name in the past. This is a government that has relied on a great big tax to fund its addiction to spending—and not just any great big tax but a tax that has aimed a dagger at the heart of Australia’s prosperity in our mining sector. This government can spin until it loses sense of balance on these matters, but at the end of the day it is just implausible to suggest that a great big tax on the mining sector, which puts our sector at a disadvantage to all of our competitors around the world, can in any way assist. The government might want to argue the toss in terms of various economists’ reports about the impacts of these matters, but they cannot sustain an argument that this type of tax will assist.

We will not introduce a tax. In fact, as the Leader of the Opposition has said, we will repeal it in government if it is passed by this parliament. We have said quite clearly that we do not support this tax. Therefore, as a responsible consequence we do not support the measures that would be potentially supported by such a tax. These are difficult decisions, but difficult decisions are what coalition governments are good at. It is what we have a record for. It is what we have the trust of the Australian people for. They understand these things. They understand our record. They understand our ability to exercise this discipline in government and deliver the economic management the country deserves. Before the last election the then shadow Treasurer and the then Leader of the Opposition, when they were in their ‘reckless spending must stop’ mode, suggested grand total savings of just $3 billion in their post-budget reply. This was also a budget reply that said there would be 2,600 trade training centres, that they would be building childcare centres all around the country, that every small business who had a bill overdue would be able to get interest paid on these things. These were extraordinary speeches; the record has proven their worth. In the post-budget reply speech there were just $3 billion worth of savings. Contrast that to the $46.7 billion that has been announced by the coalition.

The government argue, ‘Some of that is capital and some of that is not about tax cuts and things of that matter,’ and they want to argue the technical distinctions. But when it comes to reducing debt, not borrowing money for an NBN counts. It means that you do not have as much debt. When you plan to sell off Medibank Private to reduce debt, it will reduce debt. The debt burden will remain long after. Hopefully this country will once again return to surplus, but that is incredibly unlikely under this government.

This is a government that will never deliver a surplus because this is a government of blow-outs. The blow-outs are well on the record. They are relying on returning to surplus with the princely sum of $1 billion. You could fairly say that $1 billion in the context of any other government is a significant amount of buffer, but with this government it is what Monty Python would describe as ‘wafer thin’. One billion dollars for this government is what they can blow out in one cabinet meeting, with one decision to try and fix the problems that they themselves have created.

There is nothing more significant in my view, as shadow minister for immigration and citizenship, as the blow-outs that have occurred on our borders. The Rudd government have become completely overwhelmed by their failure on border protection policies. In 2009-10, this financial year, 104 boats have already arrived illegally, carrying 4,893 people. This is not only the highest number of boats and people to arrive illegally on record in a financial year but it represents an increase of more than 350 per cent on last year. When this government put last year’s budget together, they thought that 200 people would arrive—that was their projection—and that is how they framed their budget, and we have had 4,893 people so far. It is May, and we still have around five weeks to go. We have had over 600 people arriving this year, 2010, as a result of their policies.

We are aware that in August 2008 this government rolled back the border protection regime that had been so effective and that they inherited from the coalition government. They rolled it back in terms of the abolition of temporary protection visas and provided permanent protection visas to those who came illegally by boat. They closed the offshore processing detention centre on Nauru and abolished the universal offshore processing and detention arrangements that we have universally for those who arrive illegally by boat, and there are hundreds of people now being transferred to the mainland before their claims have been assessed or determined. Even when their claims have been rejected we bring them to the mainland to pursue their merit appeals, and goodness knows how many other appeals they will now have access to through our courts, while they literally stay for years pursuing those appeals. The previous government had ensured that process had discontinued.

The government abolished their promise, made famously the day before the last election when the Prime Minister said, as Leader of the Opposition, that he would turn the boats back where circumstances allowed. That has not taken place. That was probably his most deceptive comment in terms of misleading the Australian people about his position on this issue, more than any other. And then there was the special processing deal offered to the 78 passengers taken on board the Oceanic Viking, which was a testament to this government’s lack of resolve and metal on this issue, which people smugglers understand and take advantage of.

This failure in border protection, the serial wind-back to a border protection regime that is unrecognisable from what was there previously, has resulted in a significant blow-out in the detention population in this country. We now have around 2,500 people on Christmas Island; in July 2008 there were six. But that does not include the overflow in onshore detention centres. Since the beginning of this year we have had an increase of over 240 per cent—from just over 300 people, which largely comprised those who had been detained for overstaying and various other matters, to a population of over 1,100, and the number is climbing. It has got to the point where we are now asking churches to find beds. We are looking for beds all over the place. The next thing they will look for is your granny flat and the room at the back of the house to let out to ensure that this government can pursue their habit of chasing beds rather than stopping boats. That is what the government do. They are quite happy to just continue to try and find more beds but, when it comes to making the tough decisions that are necessary to stop the boats, you will find them all at sea, literally.

This has had a very significant cost attached to it. In the budget this year we will find the cost, at the very least, of what all of this has meant. In this budget there is a $777 million blow-out in the cost of offshore asylum seeker management as contained in the budget papers as opposed to what was announced last year. For the years 2009-10 out to 2012-13, there has been a $777 million blow-out in this budget to deal with these spiralling costs of the failure of the government’s border protection policies.

But it does not end there, because there is a further $236.5 million which this government is going to spend on having to expand these facilities—putting dongas in, paying for motels, doing whatever is necessary to ensure that they have beds in which to put all the people who are arriving as a result of their policies. That is $1 billion. But you would think and hope that was the end of the story, because as you go into these papers, Deputy Speaker Sidebottom, what you find is that they are actually projecting in 2011-12 that the cost of offshore asylum seeker management is going to fall by 49 per cent. Apparently at the end of 2010-11, this problem is going to halve! The boats are just going to stop arriving miraculously! That is what this government has projected. They have said that that is also going to be true for 2012-13 and 2013-14. All of this is just going to go away! Why? Because the government has put this in their Treasury papers and said, ‘Well, it’s all just going to vanish. No need to make hard decisions, no need to change policy; we’ll just continue the way we are and it’s going to miraculously just stop in around 14 months from now.’ That is not only misleading because they are not taking those decisions to put an end to the rampant business of people smuggling bringing people to this country, but it is misleading to include in these budget papers costs that do not reflect the cost of their policies. To say that there is going to be a 50 per cent reduction in 2011-12 is misleading and dishonest. They are underestimating the costs of their own policies by at least half a billion dollars alone in this area. There is a $1 billion blow-out already. Add to that another $500 million at least—unless they are forecasting the election of a coalition government at the next election, because that is the only way these policies are going to change and those costs are going to change.

But in addition what they have not done is factor in the costs for operational expenses for the additional burden that is being placed on our onshore detention network. I said earlier that we have had a 240 per cent increase in our onshore detention population due solely to the increase in illegal boat arrivals to Australia and the transfer of those detainees to the mainland. You would think if the government were honest in putting its budget papers together that it would actually be allocating additional expenditure to cope with such an increase. But you will not find that in these budget papers. When you look at the onshore detention network costs you will find that in 2009-10 they are expecting this year to round out less, and then over the forward years there will be virtually no change to those onshore detention costs. The Curtin detention centre will be reopened by this government to take those whose claims assessments have been frozen—and we have had almost 1,000 people turn up since that was introduced. They are going to transfer those to the Curtin detention centre and apparently the Curtin detention centre is going to run itself! It will not require an extra cent to run!

Now we have the reports of potentially another centre being set up in a mining camp in Western Australia. That is going to run itself as well—it won’t cost any more money to do that! The fact that we have got a doubling in the population of the Villawood detention centre and we have an increase in Darwin, which is almost at capacity now when there were only about 50 people there about five or six months ago. Apparently that is going to run itself! There is no increase in any of these costs. My point is this: this government is not being upfront with the true costs of their failed policies in these budget documents. While admitting under pressure to the fact that the blow-out on Christmas Island has a necessary impact on the budget, they have admitted it in one year and then told an absolute untruth that these costs are just going to miraculously fall and the impact on our onshore detention network is somehow going to pay for itself.

If this government, as it has done, is going to roll back policies that work and replace them with policies that do not, the least it can do is be honest with the Australian people about what that is going to cost. Last year they perpetrated a massive fraud on the Australian people, suggesting only 200 people would arrive illegally in this country by boat under their measures, on their watch. As I said before, we have had thousands—almost 5,000—as a result of those failed policies. Now they are saying it is not going to cost us anything, that this is somehow going to miraculously all just disappear.

The failure of these policies has created gridlock in our immigration department and has undermined the integrity of our immigration program. It is essential that we get our borders under control and that we do all we can once again to stop the boats. With the right policies and the right resolve, we can achieve this goal, and the coalition achieved this goal in government. We had an average of three boats per year for our last six years after the measures we introduced following a surge in arrivals when asylum applications around the world were more than 50 per cent higher than they are today. We put those measures in place, they worked and the Australian people know they worked. The Australian people trust our resolve on this issue. We are consistent on this issue. We walk one side of the street on this issue. This is a government who one day pretends to be tough and the next day pretends to be compassionate, and most days they do not know where they are. At least those in the Greens and other parties who have taken a position on this issue are consistent.

(Mr Craig Thomson MP interjecting)

I am sure the member for Dobell is very upset at the coalition’s policies of strong border protection and I am sure he will remind all of his electors in Dobell that he stands for the policies that this government has introduced which have allowed almost 5,000 people to arrive this year. I am sure the member for Dobell is going to stand up proudly in his electorate and talk about the Rudd government’s strong border protection policies which have allowed this level of failure—and if he fails to do so I will make sure I remind them when I visit there frequently over the next few weeks. I was on the Central Coast just the other day, as I am sure he knows. This government needs to own up to the fact that its policies have failed in this area, that its policies are misrepresented in terms of the costs in this budget.

The coalition is ready to put in place direct and real action in this area which is strong, which is tough and which is consistent. People know where we stand but, most importantly, they know we will be fair. We have always stood for fair process—one rule for all who fall foul of our laws and fall foul of the way that we would prefer them to arrive. We do not have one rule for those who might be Iraqis, Iranians, Indonesians or Pakistanis and then another rule for Afghans and Sri Lankans. That is just a disgrace of a policy that has proved to be as ineffective as it is discriminatory. If those opposite were honest they would say so, and I notice only the member for Melbourne Ports has been prepared to stand up for that in his own party room. At least he has the decency of consistency on these matters. We will not discriminate, as this government has shamefully done, but most importantly we will be fair and we will have the resolve. We will get these borders under control. We will get these costs under control.

This government budgets that it will get back into surplus but at the same time fails to include in its budget the costs of its own policy failures that will actually deny it that outcome. So it is a budget that fails to tell the truth. It fails to tell the truth about the cost of the government’s own policies. It is built on a great big tax to fund the government’s addiction to spending and it will result, no doubt, in continued economic profligacy, to the great disadvantage of all Australians.

Media Release : Transcript - Doorstop interview

Mon, 24 May 2010 14:00:00 GMT

Subjects: Escapes from Villawood Detention Centre, Coalition immigration and border protection policy

SCOTT MORRISON: Well we have had reports confirmed to media today that 9 detainees at Villawood have broken out of the detention centre and that a number of them, we understand 6 of them, are at large. What this is all about though is a system that has been pushed to breaking point. We have had, just in the last 5 months, an increase in the onshore detention population because of the chaos on Christmas Island, it has increased by more than 240%. We had just over 300 people in onshore detention centres at the beginning of this year, we had just over 1,100 based on figures just released by the Department in the last couple of days.

The reason for this increase is because Christmas Island has been full and this government has been transferring people to the mainland for many, many months. So effectively the break outs are a result of a system being pushed to breaking point because of this government’s border protection failures. We have a system now where under this government they are transferring people onto the mainland and somehow they don’t think it is going to cost anything at all. In the budget just the other week, there was not one extra cent, not one extra cent for additional costs for onshore detention despite the fact there has been a 240% increase in the detention population. They are going to re-open the Curtin Detention Centre for what could be up to 1,000 people who have arrived since the asylum freeze was put in but there’s not one extra cent to run the Curtin Detention Centre. They can build it but they have to operate it, apparently it is going to run itself.

Then you have the pressures on the detention centres, whether it is Villawood, whether it is the Northern Detention Centre in Darwin, whether it is people staying in motels, where we have had break outs, whether it is Maribyrnong where we have also had breakouts, the reason for all of this is because of the pressure on the system and the pressure is not going to go away, it is only going to increase as the border protection chaos continues under this government’s policies.

QUESTION: People broke out under the Howard Government too. How is this any different?

SCOTT MORRISON: Well the reason for the break outs is the point I am highlighting here. The reason for these breakouts is because of the pressure on the system. The pressure on the system is a significantly increased detention population that is the product of the border protection blow outs.

QUESTION: But how do you know that’s the reason, because these are Chinese nationals that have escaped, they are not people who have necessarily come from Christmas Island.

SCOTT MORRISON: No, they are Chinese detainees and back at the start of January we only had 100 or so people in detention in Villawood, now we have over 400 and the reason for that increase is because of the transfer of people from Christmas Island to the mainland. Now that has happened in Darwin, it has happened in Maribyrnong, it has happened in the Northern Centre, it has happened all across the country and that’s the sort of stress that has been put on the system. That is what is being fed back to me by people who are working in these areas, the stress is incredible, our immigration officials, people working for Serco are under extreme pressure and as a result, when there is pressure you are going to have these failures. When we had the last break out the Deputy Prime Minister said this wasn’t to be tolerated. She blamed the contractor, she said it was all their fault, she needs to take responsibility now. The government said there would be ‘swift action’ in the department release, well we are still here, they are still breaking out, our borders continue to remain [inaudible].

QUESTION: If you were Minister, Mr Morrison, and this break out had occurred, would you be sacking Serco, which is paid $300 million plus of taxpayer’s money, appointed by the previous government to manage…

SCOTT MORRISON: Well that’s not true. The contract was awarded by this government to Serco. The process for the contracting of those services started under the Howard Government…

QUESTION: [inaudible]

SCOTT MORRISON: No they weren’t, they were appointed by this government, they continued the contracting process. But, regardless, the point I would be focusing on is why our detention centres are full. Our detention centres are full because this government has lost control of our borders. That’s the issue that needs to be solved. All of these issues, whether it is people in motels or whether it is too many people in onshore detention centres or $1 billion cost blow outs in detention programs, all of this is a product of the border protection system that has completely failed. That is the problem that needs to be solved.

QUESTION: But isn’t the problem here that taxpayers are paying a very large amount of money to a private company that’s not doing its job and keeping these sorts of facilities secure?

SCOTT MORRISON: Well this is a contract that was let, for example, when there was around, I think, 6 people on Christmas Island, there are almost 2,500 people on Christmas Island now. The blow outs in both the detention population, the costs that are associated, are a product of the policy failures. Now the contractor has to do its job, the government has to ensure the contractor does its job. This government is making this one of the hardest detention jobs anywhere in the world today.

QUESTION: The Coalition has said that it would set up a detention centre offshore. Have you made any progress as to where you would set it up offshore?

SCOTT MORRISON: We said we would maintain an absolute commitment to offshore processing. That’s what we have said.

QUESTION: Can you guarantee that if you were immigration minister there would be no breakouts?

SCOTT MORRISON: No that’s not my point today. My point today is why these breakouts are occurring. You have got to address the causes of this problem. The causes of this problem is the failed border protection policies of this government.

QUESTION: …In 2001 there were 157 break outs in that one year, that’s almost five times as many. Are you saying this government is doing a worse job than the previous government?

SCOTT MORRISON: Well in 2001, as we know, we had a massive surge in arrivals. We know that was the case and the government did something about stopping the surge in arrivals and when you dealt with this surge in arrivals then this problem was addressed and that is what I am saying this government should do. They need to address the cause of this problem which is the surge in arrivals.

QUESTION: The Shire president of the area around Leonora in the Kalgoorlie District is saying that they are refurbishing a mine site in that district to take Christmas Island asylum seekers. If you inherited this facility as an active detention centre, what would you do with it?

SCOTT MORRISON: I can’t confirm those reports but frankly nothing would surprise me in terms of what this government is now doing. You have got them ringing around churches for extra beds, what’s next? The granny flat? The spare room out the back? So will just have to wait and see. So nothing would surprise me with the chaos they have created by their own policies.

QUESTION: The claims of family members that up to 100 asylum seekers may have disappeared on a boat travelling down from Java, the government can’t even confirm whether that boat existed. Is that good enough?

SCOTT MORRISON: Well look, this is the human tragedy of this situation. I have often referred to this vessel. It left Indonesia in October, there were 105 people, as I understand, aboard. There were family members of those people who live in Brisbane and they have waited for that boat to turn up since. I think it just highlights what is at risk when we don’t stop the boats. People get on them and people die on boats.

QUESTION: What’s your policy? It’s to process asylum seekers offshore so does that mean you would set up another detention camp offshore?

SCOTT MORRISON: We have said that we will maintain offshore processing…

QUESTION: But you haven’t said how, you have got to be credible and say how.

SCOTT MORRISON: We will outline all our policies before the next election Paul as I have said to you.

QUESTION: But is your policy open to processing these people in another country or would it be done on Australian territory that has been excised?

SCOTT MORRISON: As I said, we will make all this clear before the next election.

END

Media Release : Transcript - 2GB Ray Hadley Program

Mon, 24 May 2010 14:00:00 GMT

Subjects: Escapes from Villawood Detention Centre

RAY HADLEY: G’day Scott

SCOTT MORRISON: G’day Ray, how are you?

RAY HADLEY: Not bad. You heard about it from our programme I believe.

SCOTT MORRISON: Yes I heard about it and I’ve just been pulled out of a meeting. I’m happy to be on the programme. We have another six that are still at large. I understand nine broke out last night. Now that follows similar incidents in Darwin and Melbourne, more recently. As well as the breakouts back in March from Villawood when the Minister was saying people were being taken there because it was more secure. Julia Gillard said at that time ‘we don’t want to see any repeat of this’. Well we’re seeing it because the borders are out of control and we’ve had a 240% increase in the on shore detention population since January of this year.

RAY HADLEY: We’ve got too many of them. Now these nine Chinese nationals are not illegal boat people. They’re breaching visa conditions or over staying their visas. Now they’ve been rounded up by immigration and so that’s cost us money. We get them in there, they’ve got some sort of right of appeal, even though they’ve over stayed their visas or they’ve breached their visa conditions, so they are there while they explore their avenues to stay here and they’re climbing fences at half past three this morning. It’s unbelievable.

SCOTT MORRISON: Well the reason they’re getting the opportunity to do that is because there’s about 400 people now in the Villawood Detention Centre rather than about 100 or up to 100 at the beginning of this year. Now that’s put a lot of pressure on how these centers are run and how they were resourced and it’s because of the overwhelming impact of literally hundreds of people who have been transferred off Christmas Island. Now this is only going to get worse. We’ve had almost 1,000 people turn up since they had this asylum freeze which has had no impact, now all of those people are going to come to the mainland centres, the government hasn’t allocated one dollar in their budget to pay for how they are going to deal with all this. They will still spend the money, it will just be another detention blowout, so it’s just farce Ray.

RAY HADLEY: The other thing Scott, and I appreciate you coming out of a meeting to talk to me, the Department of Immigration, I think Sandi Logan is on leave, the Minister, unless it suits him doesn’t talk to me - and we’re to talk to him later this week because I think the 28 days for Motekiai Taufahema has elapsed, the murderer, or one of the murderers of Glenn McEnallay to send him back to his place of birth and that will be this week - but we’re trying to get someone to talk to us because it’s an important issue that we’ve had nine people escape and we want to know what they’re doing to beef up security and no one is available to us.

SCOTT MORRISON: Well that doesn’t surprise me, sadly Ray. This is a government that is happy to go out there when it wants to spin something. When it wants to try and tell you there’s good news about, but they won’t be accountable for their failures. But I’ll tell you what they’ll say if they were to come on. They’d blame the contractor or they’d blame international forces. I don’t know, blame their parents. I‘ve got no idea Ray. But they’ll certainly blame someone else. They need to take responsibility and the cause of this problem is the fact that the whole system has been overrun because of their border protection failures. It has put this department into complete gridlock and until they deal with this issue of the boats, we’re just going to see this continue and continue and continue.

RAY HADLEY: Ok Scott thanks for your time.

SCOTT MORRISON: Thanks Ray.

END

Media Release : Labor's failed border protection pushes detention centres to break out point

Mon, 24 May 2010 14:00:00 GMT

The breakout of another 9 detainees from Villawood, with six still on the run, is further demonstration of Labor’s border protection and immigration chaos, Shadow Minister for Immigration and Citizenship, Scott Morrison said today.

“The latest breakout follows similar incidents in Darwin and Melbourne, and 7 people breaking out in Villawood back in March,” Mr Morrison said.

“In response to the Villawood breakouts in March, Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard tried to avoid responsibilty by blaming the Government’s contractor, stating ‘we obviously don’t want to see any repeat of this poor conduct’. The Government promised “swift action’ in a statement issued by the Department of Immigration and Citizenship.

“The time for excuses is over. The Rudd Government must take responsibility for these breakouts, as it is their policies that have pushed the system to breaking point.

“Since January the number of detainees held in onshore detention centres has risen by more than 240%, due to record illegal boat arrivals, with hundreds of detainees transferred to the mainland.

“According to Department figures, there were 329 people being held in onshore detention on January 1. As at May 7 this figure has risen to 1,126 detainees.

“The failure of the Rudd Government’s border protection policy is placing increased pressure on our onshore detention facilities and it will only get worse.

“Since the Rudd Government announced their asylum freeze, 22 boats have arrived carrying almost 1,000 people. The overwhelming majority of these illegal arrivals will be from Afghanistan and Sri Lanka, who will be staying for at least 6 months and 3 months respectively, before their claims are even assessed.

“Detainees subject to the suspension will be transferred onshore to the Curtin detention centre when it is reopened, further swelling the numbers being held onshore.

“Despite the significant increase in the onshore detention population, the Rudd Government has made no provision for any increased funding to cover these costs.

“According to the Government budget, the reopened Curtin detention centre is going to run itself, while increased detention populations around the country are cost free. Kevin Rudd is masking yet another detention budget blowout,” Mr Morrison said.

Speech : Cook 2020 Taskforce

Sun, 23 May 2010 14:00:00 GMT

Speech

Cook 2020 Taskforce

Monday 24th May 2010

On 29 April, I joined with others in the shire community to celebrate the 240th anniversary of Cook’s landing at Kurnell. In less than 10 years, we will celebrate the 250th anniversary of Captain Cook’s landing at Kurnell and this will be a significant milestone in our nation’s history. Indeed, Kurnell is the birthplace of modern Australia. The aim is to make 29 April 2020 the most significant national celebration since our bicentenary. We have 10 years of opportunity before us and there is much to be gained by getting started as early as we can. You could be forgiven for thinking that Cook’s landing place at Kurnell in my electorate of Cook would be a national sanctuary, but anyone who has visited the site and the Kurnell Peninsula more generally knows differently. In 2005, Cook’s landing site was placed on the National Heritage List thanks primarily to the work of my predecessor, the Hon. Bruce Baird. We must now ensure the site is upgraded to match its national significance by this important national milestone of the 250th anniversary.

At present, international visitors and many in this place fly over Kurnell but few visit. School children come here to our national parliament to see how a democracy works, but few ever make it to Kurnell to see where our modern national story began. Cook’s landing place today is a collection of tired monuments and stale exhibits that frankly do not do the site justice. The site in its present form represents a monument to national apathy, or worse still insecurity about our national heritage, rather than the birthplace of modern Australia. Recent catch-up works brought some much needed improvement, but this should be the beginning of efforts to properly recognise Kurnell, not a mission accomplished moment in which to pose for photos, as it was at the time. The people of the Sutherland Shire are proud to live in an area that is so significant to our national history and our national story. It is time more was done to share this pride with all Australians. With my daughter turning three, it was with great pride that I was able to show her the place where Captain Cook landed. She looked at it and repeated it back to me. Every time we drive along Botany Bay now she points out to it.

What is needed is a major transformation. Only then can this site realise its potential to benefit all Australians. But to get there we need to confront the reasons for its neglect and ensure they are addressed in how we manage the site in the future. To that end, I have formed a bipartisan committee of federal and state politicians, councillors, and Indigenous, business and community representatives. I sincerely thank my fellow shire resident and a member of the other place, Senator Michael Forshaw, for joining me in the bipartisan charge and helping to convene the task force. The task force will draw on representatives from our federal and state parliaments and local councillors with a direct interest in Kurnell, together with local Indigenous, business and community representatives in the area. I have written to these leaders and, in the process of doing so, have encouraged them to come together and join in this movement. In particular, the Sutherland Shire Council Mayor, Lorraine Kelly, has recently indicated her willingness to join on behalf of the council, as has the state member for Cronulla, Malcolm Kerr and the shire councillor, Kevin Schreiber, who has had a long-standing passion for this issue and has already taken up the charge.

The task force will seek to approach respected local, state and national individuals to serve as Cook 2020 ambassadors to help educate and spread the message of the significance of Cook’s discovery and his role in our national story. My predecessor in this place, the Hon. Bruce Baird, has agreed to perform such a role in the pursuit of the task force’s objective. The first item of business for the task force will be to agree on a submission to federal, state and local governments to support works and initiatives as part of a comprehensive 2020 celebration program. This submission may contain a new vision for Kurnell based on the membership’s views, which could include: a new monument, together with upgraded walkways and signage; rebuilding the wharf at Kurnell to provide ferry and launch access; a high-tech museum of Pacific discovery, alongside a permanent Cook exhibition and Indigenous interpretive centre that will bring our national stories to life, particularly for young Australians; and an on-site venue with major catering facilities to ensure that it can cater for the needs of international tourists and others who come from around the country. There are other measures, such as the establishment of a national heritage community trust board, which would put the site under the management of local community and Indigenous groups, rather than a bureaucracy in the form of the National Parks service, to ensure that the site will always be protected for its heritage significance rather than for any other competing demands.

I believe Cook’s landing site at Kurnell plays a very special role for Australia as a place where we can come together again. It is a place of new beginnings. It is a place where we can celebrate our new beginnings while honouring and paying tribute to our Indigenous past. It is a place where the stories of Cook should be told alongside the stories of heroes like Pemulway, the great Aboriginal warrior who grew up on the other side of Botany Bay and fought for his people during the early settlement years. I look forward to reporting on further progress of the Cook 2020 Taskforce and enlisting the support of other members for the cause.

Speech : Sydney Airport Long Term Operating Plan

Sun, 23 May 2010 14:00:00 GMT

Speech

Sydney Airport Long Term Operating Plan

Monday 24th May 2010

Sydney airport is vital economic infrastructure for Australia, for Sydney and, more importantly and specifically, for the Sutherland Shire, supporting thousands of local jobs. The long-term operating plan for Sydney airport, also known as LTOP, was an election commitment that the Howard government took to the 1996 election. It involves the principle of sharing aircraft noise around all areas surrounding Sydney airport, using different combinations of runway modes. Subject to safety and weather considerations, LTOP seeks to maximise the number of flights over water and non-residential areas. Within LTOP there are specific targets for the percentage of flights to be routed from and to the south—around 55 per cent—and equally from the east, the west and the north. The assumption is that flights to the south are over water—but, as those at Kurnell would know, those flights are over their places. It is also implicit in the assumption that 55 per cent of flights to the south are over water that the flight path predominantly used, other than for planes that come in directly over Kurnell, will be over water.

A key component of the plan to achieve this objective was the way in which flights are intended to track when landing from the south. Approaching from the north, they are intended to track east of the airport—out to sea, off the coast—before looping around and landing from the south along the two parallel runways. On this route they do substantively travel over water. LTOP became a legal obligation for Airservices Australia when it was made the subject of a ministerial directive referred to in a motion by the then transport Minister John Sharp in 1997. Following the last election an announcement was made by Sydney airport that construction works were required at the western end of the east-west runway to erect a jet blast barrier. These were important and necessary safety works. Following consultation and approval by the minister for transport, requiring a series of worthy safeguards for the project, the project was agreed to and allowed to proceed.

A key element of the approval was to ensure a fair sharing of aircraft noise during the construction phase due to the restricted use of the east-west runway. An environmental impact statement was also done as part of this process. The project got underway in the latter part of 2008 with the goodwill of the communities that would be affected. For shire residents, a key issue was that the government should be held to the promise that—and I quote from the Sydney airport release—‘as soon as the construction is complete, normal airport operations and noise-sharing arrangements will resume’. As the project proceeded, many residents from Kareela and the nearby suburbs of Sylvania, Jannali, Miranda, Gymea Bay and Grays Point contacted me to register their opposition to the increase in aircraft noise over their homes. I raised this issue with Airservices Australia and they told me that these flights were normal and not subject to any LTOP obligations. That was plainly not true. They were definitely subject to LTOP obligations, as required over many years.

The publication of operational statistics for Sydney airport told me a very different story to the one initially presented by Airservices Australia. It showed that there was a direct concentration of flights over the area that was affected and from which the complaints were originating. The increased noise was the result of the increased use of a standard arrival route known as Boree 4. It showed that there had been an increase in the concentration of flights on that route from 2.8 per cent of arrivals to 7.8 per cent of total arrivals in just a 12-month period. I call it ‘Labor’s highway in the sky’. Once again, this route applies to landing from the south but, rather than going to the east of the airport and out to sea, the planes are flying directly through the member for Lowe’s electorate, right down through the member for Watson’s electorate and the member for Barton’s electorate and across my electorate in the shire. They are supposed to be flying over those areas at a height of 6,000 feet before looping around and landing from the south. The problem with this approach is not only that it is against the principles of LTOP—which were put in place and which this motion seeks to have applied—but also that there has been a constant struggle to ensure the community gets access to information about what they know to be really happening on the ground.

These flights arrive during the early part of the morning, particularly in the curfew shoulder period and between six and seven. What we have been able to establish through the Sydney Airport Community Forum is that not only has this been happening, and it has been a real experience, but also, since the construction project that was blamed for the increase in noise has been completed, the noise continues. So we have been asked to ensure that the government provide the information that will confirm what people know on the ground: this flight noise is continuing because the government has not changed the flight paths back to normal, as was suggested, and the community is calling on them to do just that—to return aircraft operations at Sydney Airport to normal, as promised.