Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton said Australians must guard against compassion towards refugees as it could undo the government’s hard-fought success in discouraging people smugglers.
Minister Dutton said it was essential that people realise that the hard-won success of the past few years could be undone overnight but a single act of compassion in bringing 20 people from Manus to Australia.
He said that the boats haven’t gone away and if there was a success defined by an arrival of a boat then the word would spread like wildfire.