100 days: keeping our promise to stop the boat

"Today marks 100 days since the last successful people smuggling venture to Australia.

The security of our nation is the most important responsibility of government.
This government takes its responsibilities seriously.

The Coalition went to the last election with clear policies to stop the boats.
We are keeping our promise to stop the boats by doing what we said we would do.
These strong policies are saving lives.

Under Labor, more than 800 boats arrived carrying over 50,000 people, including more than 8,000 children. This catastrophic policy failure resulted in over 1,000 lives lost at sea and $11 billion in Budget blowouts.

The Government has made the difficult but necessary decisions to stop the boats.

Operation Sovereign Borders is working as intended.

The people smugglers understand that the way to Australia is closed.

The progress we are making in strengthening our borders is restoring confidence in our migration programme.
We are an immigrant country and a successful immigration programme requires that it operates with integrity.

While this milestone recognises the progress that we have made, the Government remains resolute in our determination to stop the boats.

Regards,

Tony Abbott
Prime Minister "