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

The Hon. Tony Abbott MP
Prime Minister

The Hon. Scott Morrison MP 
Minister for Immigration and Border Protection

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

The last successful people smuggling venture to Australia occurred on 19 December last year. During the same 100 day period a year ago (20 December 2012 – 29 March 2013), 66 illegal boats carrying 3,879 people arrived.

This is the longest period without a successful venture since before the Howard Government’s strong border protection policies were abandoned by Labor and Kevin Rudd in August 2008.

The Coalition went to the last election with clear policies to stop the boats. We are delivering on our pledge to stop the boats.

The Government has made difficult but necessary decisions to secure our borders and restore what Labor had destroyed. These strong policies are saving lives.

Operation Sovereign Borders is working as intended. We acknowledge the work and dedication of the people and agencies across government in making this happen. They are doing a great service for our nation.

The people smugglers now understand that the way to Australia is closed. We are putting the smugglers out of business.

Under Labor over 800 boats arrived carrying more than 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 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 operate with integrity.

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