Adam Bandt (Melbourne, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Staff at the Royal Children's Hospital in my electorate have refused to discharge asylum seeker children because your government will lock them back up in detention centres where children are self-harming and becoming suicidal. No-one wants to see people drown at sea, but do you really believe that we cannot find a solution that does not involve locking up babies and children in mental illness factories? Prime Minister, will you accept that previous Labor and Liberal governments got it wrong, and will you release all children from detention?

Government Members:

Government members interjecting—

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Members on my right will cease interjecting.

Malcolm Turnbull (Wentworth, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the honourable member for his question. I will respond to it with the gravity it deserves. But I would simply note this: the honourable member said 'nobody wants people to die at sea'. I accept that the honourable member does not. The simple fact—the melancholy truth—is that the policies that he and his party supported, and still support, have been proven to have that consequence. There is no doubt about that. This is not a question of theory; this is a question of fact. There was an experiment undertaken under the Labor government. Mr Rudd himself regretted it and sought to change it. The fact is it was done, it happened, it was a mistake, people died.

Nobody wants to have children in detention—not me, not any member of this House, not anyone, not any Australian. We have been working very hard to reduce those numbers. Under the Labor government, the number of children in detention peaked at almost 2,000. Under this government, those numbers have been dramatically reduced. There are currently, so I am advised, around 100 in Australia and somewhat fewer than that in Nauru. That work is continuing to be done. That is the goal.

Turning to questions of medical assistance, let me just make this point: if people require medical assistance, they will receive it. Whether it is on Nauru or in Australia, they will receive it. That is the government's commitment. If there is a complicated pregnancy or an assault where a person cannot be given appropriate medical attention on Nauru, they are brought back to Australia. That has been done consistently over a long period of time.

I say to the honourable member, and I say to all honourable members and to all Australians, we recognise that our border protection policy is tough; we recognise that many would see it as harsh. But it has been proven to be the only way to stop those deaths at sea and to ensure that our sovereignty and our borders are safe. This is not a theoretical exercise. I have to say to the honourable member: he should reflect very seriously on his own party's conscience on this vital matter.