House debates

Monday, 21 February 2011

Private Members’ Business

Defence Housing as an Immigration Detention Facility

Debate resumed, on motion by Mr Robert:

That this House:

(1)
notes that:
(a)
Defence Housing Australia (DHA) is the professional manager of Defence houses;
(b)
the Department of Defence still retains over 1650 homes that have not been handed over to DHA; and
(c)
the Government is using some of these 1650 homes, notably over 50 at Inverbrackie, as a detention facility to house Irregular Maritime Arrivals (IMA), rather than Defence families; and
(2)
calls on the Government to:
(a)
cease using Defence housing as an immigration detention facility;
(b)
hand over all houses managed by the Department of Defence to DHA; and
(c)
categorically state that it will not acquire the homes of Defence families for the purpose of housing the ever increasing number of IMA arriving in Australia as a result of the Government’s soft border protection policies.

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