Rally for Egyptian Copts; Julia Gillard’s border protection mess; federal election: Tony Abbott Doorstop

23/10/11

TRANSCRIPT OF THE HON. TONY ABBOTT MHR

JOINT DOORSTOP INTERVIEW WITH MR SCOTT MORRISON,

SHADOW MINISTER FOR IMMIGRATION AND CITIZENSHIP,

SYDNEY

Subjects: Rally for Egyptian Copts; Julia Gillard’s border protection mess; federal election.

E&OE……………………….……………………………………………………………

TONY ABBOTT:

It’s good to be with Scott at this rally in support of the Coptic community, both here and in Egypt. What’s happened in Egypt is an atrocity; in fact there have been a series of atrocities in Egypt. It’s good that Minister Bowen has been here today representing the Government, but certainly on behalf of the Coalition I want to say that we deplore what’s happened, we think it’s absolutely incumbent on the government of Egypt to ensure that the ordinary human rights of everyone – Muslim, Christian, everyone – are properly respected.

I should also say that over the last 24 hours we’ve had another three boats and what we’re seeing is obviously a Government that’s lost control of our borders, and if you can’t control our borders you can’t govern the country. It’s interesting when Julia Gillard was in opposition she blamed the government for the boats, now that she’s in government she blames the Opposition for the boats. Well, it is her responsibility. She needs to put policies in place that will actually stop the boats. She knows there’s a better way, the better way is the policies that the Coalition pursued for a decade – offshore processing at Nauru, temporary protection visas and the option of turning boats around where it’s safe to do so.

I might just ask Scott to say a few words and we’ll take some questions.

SCOTT MORRISON:

Well, I just repeat what Tony said in terms of our support for Australian Copts and it’s a privilege to be here once again today to support that and to renew our call for the refugee and humanitarian programme to ensure that it’s opened up for those who are fleeing persecution and seeking our refuge here.

On the issue of the boats that have arrived, it’s simply business a usual under this Government. So long as this Government continues to cling to policy failure, with issues such as their failed Malaysian people swap, well, the boats will continue to arrive. The Coalition has proven solutions; the Government has rejected those. They are going to continue their policy of onshore processing and now adopting the Greens policies of allowing people to access work rights and welfare in the community before their refugee status is even determined. So, those sorts of pull factors will only contribute to the problem, it won’t solve them.

TONY ABBOTT:

Ok. Any questions?

QUESTION:

You’ve been calling for a mini budget, what are you hoping that that would achieve?

TONY ABBOTT:

Well, I think that it’s very important for the Government now that it has adopted effectively the Greens policies on border protection to tell us how much more it is going to cost, how many more boats they expect to arrive, how much it’s going to cost to process those people and what the social security costs of those additional arrivals might be?

QUESTION:

You’ve got a pre-selection opening on Monday, are you getting a bit cocky about there being an early election that you’re likely to win?

TONY ABBOTT:

I have never taken anything for granted since the day I became Opposition Leader. Everyday I have to hold the Government to account. Everyday my colleagues and I have to be a credible alternative and we will keep doing that every single day until the next election, whenever that is.

QUESTION:

So predicting an early election though, do you think it’s likely?

TONY ABBOTT:

Look, the difficultly we’ve got at the moment is that we have a paralysed Government. We have a Government which is paralysed until the faceless men decide who is going to be the next prime minister. Now, I think the Australian public are sick of it, I think they have come to a settled conclusion that minority government is an experiment that’s failed, and I think they’re sick of a Government which is always making excuses for itself and is acting more like an alternative opposition than an effective and credible Australian Government.

QUESTION:

Three boats in the past 24 hours, whose fault is that?

TONY ABBOTT:

Look, I guess in the first instance it’s the fault of the people smugglers but fundamentally it’s the fault of a Government which not only gave the people smugglers a business model but really is the people smugglers business model.

QUESTION:

[inaudible] Malaysia solution, so isn’t it partially your responsibility as well?

TONY ABBOTT:

We have said to the Government that, provided they will accept our amendment, their legislation can pass through the parliament in a day, but they’ve got to accept our amendment because our amendment guarantees not only offshore processing, it also guarantees offshore protections and you need both – you need offshore processing to protect our borders, but you’ve also got to behave decently towards all of the people who come into Australia’s care.

QUESTION:

The suite of measures that you’ve got on offer – TPVs, turning boats back and so on – are you confident that that will do the job if and when you’re in government or do you think that additional measures might be required?

TONY ABBOTT:

I’ve never said that it was going to be an easy job but I am confident that if we put all three of those measures in place, yes we can stop the boats and I make the observation that Chris Bowen obviously thinks that Nauru makes sense because that was the option that he put to the cabinet, he thought he had the support of the Prime Minister but apparently the Prime Minister went to water on the day when she realised that she didn’t have the support of the Left.