People smugglers hold 'closing down'sale
28-February-2013
George Christensen MP -
Julia Gillard’s announcement of an election date sparked a frantic closing down sale in the people smuggling industry, according to Federal Member for Dawson, George Christensen.
Another boat arrival, with 68 people on board, on Monday, marked 25 boats to arrive
for the year with a week
of February still to go.
“We have just witnessed the most aggressive summer of people smuggling activity in history, despite the monsoon season, with 3000 people arriving since December 1,” he said.
“That’s almost 1000 more than the previous summer, proving the Gillard Labor government has totally lost control of our borders.
“Australia is on track to see the biggest year of illegal boat arrivals – even bigger than the record set by the Gillard Labor government last year.”
Mr Christensen said the massive influx of boat arrivals was costing billions of dollars, pushing the country further into debt at a time it could least afford it.
“What makes matters worse is the fact that this is a problem of the government’s own doing,” he said.
“The Rudd Labor government took a perfectly good solution that stopped the boats under John Howard and dismantled it.
“They took a solution and created a problem. Now the Australian people are paying for it and the next generation will be stuck paying higher taxes to fund the error in judgement.”