Scott Morrison has confirmed that he will reopen the detention centre on Christmas Island as a result of yesterday’s historic defeat for the government in the Lower House, which he claims has “weakened” the country’s borders.
The prime minister announced the Coalition has approved the reopening of the detention centre, which was first used by former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, in a fiery press conference in Canberra on Wednesday morning in which he vowed to stop asylum seekers reaching Australia by boat.
Christmas Island’s detention centre was initially commissioned by John Howard but first used in 2008 by Rudd’s Labor government. However, controversy surrounded the island in 2010 when 50 asylum seekers, including 15 children, died off the coast of Flying Fish Cove, the island’s main settlement, after their wooden boat crashed into rocks.
“This parliament has already tipped its hand enough to people smugglers,” the PM said, speaking in the courtyard of Parliament House. “I won’t be doing that.
“We have approved putting in place the reopening of the Christmas Island detention facilities, both to deal with the prospect of arrivals as well as dealing with the prospect of transfers.”
The detention centre only ceased to operate, after 10 years, in October 2018 when it was closed by the Morrison administration.
Read more: Morrison suffers historic defeat as Labor passes refugee medical transfers bill.
Morrison also unleashed on Bill Shorten during the address, telling reporters the Opposition leader will be to blame if a new wave of asylum seekers begin to arrive by boat following the passage of the refugee transfer bill in the House of Representatives on Tuesday.
The Medevac Bill – also known as the Phelps Bill – passed by 75 votes to 74, delivering a historic defeat for the government on the first sitting day of parliament for the year, after Labor secured the support of the Greens and crossbench MPs to outnumber the Liberal National Coalition.
The bill, which will give doctors more power to bring offshore asylum seekers to Australia for medical treatment, was then passed in the Senate on Wednesday, shortly after Morrison’s deliverance, as Senator Derryn Hinch switched sides and placed his support with Labor, claiming the issue was a “humanitarian” one.
Morrison added: “My job now is to ensure that boats don’t come, my job now is to do everything in my power to ensure that what the parliament has done to weaken our borders does not result in boats coming to Australia.
“Our government is running border protection in this country. The people smugglers know my resolve, they know Peter Dutton’s resolve, they know we will do everything in our power to stop them. If they don’t come it will be because of the work and decisions we are now taking. If they do come you can thank the Labor Party and Bill Shorten because he is the one who has led this process to weaken our borders.”
When asked by reporters what his message to potential asylum seekers would be, he added: “I am standing between people smugglers and brining a boat to Australia. Last time I did that, you didn’t get here.”
Denying that he would try to overrule the vote by blocking it from getting royal assent, Morrison vowed to reverse the “foolish” law should the Coalition be reelected when the polls open in May.
Suggesting that the country’s borders are “weaker than they were two days ago”, he wrapped up his press conference by saying the bar that asylum seekers will have to clear if Shorten is elected as prime minister will be “lower than a snake’s belly”.