Promise check: We will stop the boats

Updated

In his campaign launch speech on August 25, 2013, Tony Abbott pledged: "We'll build a stronger economy so everyone can get ahead. We'll scrap the carbon tax so your family will be $550 a year better off. We'll get the budget back under control by ending Labor's waste. We'll stop the boats."



On June 6, 2013, Mr Abbott was talking to the press when he committed to stopping the boats within his first term as Prime Minister.



Journalist: "You say you'll stop the boats. Will that happen in a first term?" Abbott: "The short answer is yes."



As far back as his first few months as opposition leader in 2010, Mr Abbott raised the subject at a joint doorstop interview with then opposition immigration spokesman Scott Morrison.

Mr Abbott said the Coalition was "finalising border security policies that really work". Mr Morrison said "We will have the solution to ensure that we stop the boats."

ABC Fact Check will update this promise with official figures on boat arrivals at the end of every month, as well as when other significant events occur.

Assessing the promise

In the lead up to the 2013 election, Mr Abbott told the ABC's Lateline he would compare the Coalition's performance on asylum seekers to the Howard government's record.

"I will regard myself as having succeeded very well if we can get back to a situation of having three boats a year. Obviously our ideal is to have zero boats," he said.

Fact Check considered this promise delivered on April 30, 2015, when only one boat had arrived in 18 months.

Here's how the promise tracked:

Topics: scott-morrison, immigration, federal-government, liberals, australia

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