‘Will NZ take questionable asylum seekers?’: Peter Dutton questions Labor’s border plan

The Coalition has put border protection back on the agenda, questioning Labor’s plan.

Minister for Home Affairs Peter Dutton. Picture: AAP

The Coalition has tried to put border protection at the centre of the election campaign just nine days out from polling day, with Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton claiming Labor has gone “soft on turning back boats”.

Launching the government’s current suite of border protection policies in the marginal seat of Herbert, Mr Dutton also questioned which third-country deals a future Shorten government would broker to resettle refugees on Manus Island and Nauru.

The issue of border protection had barely rated a mention during the election campaign before today.

“We have been able to broker an arrangement with the United States. The US was very clear, both President (Barack) Obama and President (Donald) Trump made it very clear to us that that deal would only apply to those people currently on Manus and Nauru,” Mr Dutton said.

“So the first boat with 40 or 50 people, half of whom will be children, the first boat that arrives under Labor, not one of those people will be eligible to go to the United States. Now the US deal was for up to 1200 people but there are some people that the United States has said that they will not accept.

“Under Mr Shorten’s plan those people will come to Australia or they go to New Zealand. It will be very interesting to see under a Shorten government whether or not (NZ prime minister) Jacinda Ardern will take people with questionable backgrounds. Will the New Zealand government take people referred to them by the Australian government and will they reject anyone?”

Mr Dutton warned against people assuming the people smuggling trade had been solved.

“The promise that we make to the Australian people is that our policy on Operation Sovereign Borders will continue and we cannot take our foot off the pedal here. This is an enduring problem. It is an enduring threat,” he said.

“The fact that Labor is proposing to undo regional processing through their Medivac bill, the fact that Labor is proposing to go soft on turning back boats where it is safe to do so and the fact that don’t have the ability or the desire within the Labor Party to keep those boats stopped, it is a big issue at this election. If people think that the problem has been solved and you can vote for the Labor Party and get tough borders at this election you are dead wrong.”

Bill Shorten last night nominated his party’s adoption of the Coalition’s boat turnbacks policy as a decision he had made that was right but not necessarily popular.

On the New Zealand offer to resettle 150 refugees, Mr Dutton said the government had not ruled it out but it was not an option “in the best interests for us” at the moment.

“People smugglers are marketing New Zealand at this point and the Labor Party refuses to accept that,” he said.

“Bill Shorten doesn’t even understand … that as a New Zealand citizen you have the ability to come to Australia and get a visa on arrival. No other country in the world has that. So, if you want a backdoor way to get to Australia, you go to New Zealand.”