Concetta Fierravanti-Wells (NSW, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Immigration and Shadow Parliamentary Secretary Assisting the Leader in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask a supplementary question. Does the minister agree with Sri Lanka’s permanent representative to the United Nations, who said:

As long as the pull factor is brought to an end or satisfactorily controlled. I think this exodus will cease almost immediately.

Will the minister now concede that it is not the so-called ‘push factors’ that are actively encouraging people smuggling to Australia; it is the fact that the pull factor is practised by the Rudd government?