PM warns people smugglers to stay away

SCOTT Morrison has warned people smugglers considering sailing to Australia they will not succeed, arguing his government is the one thing stopping asylum-seeker boats.

The Prime Minister has recorded a video message to be translated into 15 languages and aired in 10 countries con- sidered asylum-seeker hot spots. “Make no mistake, if you attempt to come to Australia illegally by boat, you will not succeed,” he says in the twominute clip. “So do not waste your money or risk your life, or anyone else’s life, for nothing.”

His direct message comes after changes to the medical treatment of asylum seekers were legislated against the Fed- eral Government’s wishes. Doctors have been given a greater say in medical evacuations for asylum seekers on Manus Island and Nauru, and the Immigration Minister’s discretion to refuse transfers to serious criminals has been curtailed.

Mr Morrison has been accused of encouraging people smugglers to come to Australia by suggesting the country’s borders are now less secure.

“Scott Morrison says one thing one week and another thing another week,” Labor frontbencher Penny Wong said in Adelaide yesterday.

The Government is reopening a detention centre on Christmas Island at a cost of $1.4 billion as it braces for an expected flood of transfers.