Mr HAASE (2:19 PM) —My question is addressed to the Attorney-General, representing the Minister for Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs. Would the Attorney inform the House of the measures included in last night's budget that will allow the government to continue sending a strong signal to people smugglers? Attorney, more specifically, what role will the new permanent detention centre on Christmas Island play in maintaining the integrity of Australia's borders?

The SPEAKER —Order! The member for Lingiari might remember a little matter about a pot and a kettle!

Mr WILLIAMS (Attorney-General) —I thank the member for Kalgoorlie for his question. Given his vast electorate, with its thousands of kilometres of coastline, his electors have a very real interest in border protection matters. The excellent budget delivered last night by the Treasurer demonstrates quite clearly that the government is determined to maintain the integrity of Australia's borders. It shows that we are committed to running an orderly migration program and to resettling the most vulnerable of refugees who are living in appalling conditions around the world. We are dealing with the problem at its sources, and we are lifting the capacity of transit countries to deal with the issues. We are also continuing to take strong and appropriate measures within Australia.

Christmas Island has been one of the main entry points to Australia for unauthorised arrivals. It has been excised from Australia's migration zone for unauthorised arrivals, so it is an appropriate place to build a detention centre. The development of the centre reinforces the message to people smugglers that mandatory detention is still firm government policy. People smugglers will not be able to deliver what their customers want, which is passage to the Australian mainland. The new permanent facility will provide higher levels of amenity, safety and security for up to 1,200 unauthorised boat arrivals. The facility will be Australia's first purpose built, purpose designed immigration reception and processing centre.

We have already seen the government's policy on border protection bearing fruit. We have not had one boat arrive since December last year yet, 12 months ago, we had almost 2,400 arrive in the equivalent period. We must maintain our vigilance, and we must continue to make sure that people smugglers know their insidious trade will not succeed. The Christmas Island centre sends that message strongly and clearly—but that is not the message that the Labor Party is sending. On Queensland radio on 5 April, Premier Beattie was unambiguous with his `not in my backyard' comments. He said:

South Australian Premier, Mike Rann, said on 12 April:

What about today? On Tasmanian radio this morning, Labor Treasurer, David Crean, asked:

What sort of signal does that send to people smugglers? Certainly, it does not send the message that Labor is serious about border protection or about stopping people-smuggling.