Kate Lundy (ACT, Australian Labor Party, Minister Assisting for Industry and Innovation) Share this | Hansard source

Once again I am able to reject completely Senator Cash's proposition in her question. The fact of the matter is that the federal Labor government is implementing the expert panel recommendations. We have a plan.

The coalition maintain that somehow they had a perfect solution. This is completely incorrect, because there was nothing about the temporary protection visa approach that was worthy, and that is why we got rid of it. The temporary protection visas and the other measures that the coalition had in place did not work. They continually stand up in this place and claim that they did, but if you look at the numbers—the numbers of boat arrivals and, indeed, the numbers of people on Nauru—under the coalition who were eventually processed and became permanent residents in Australia you see that their claim that they had a system that worked is a complete fallacy.

The fact is that times change; we have a challenge that we are addressing and taking independent advice on, and Senator Cash— (Time expired)