Malcolm Turnbull (Wentworth, Liberal Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Hansard source

My question is again to the Acting Prime Minister. I refer her to the government’s repeated assertions that the surge in boat arrivals to Australia is due to international push factors and to the fact that the UN High Commissioner for Refugees reports that the number of refugees has decreased from 9.9 million as at 31 December 2006 to 9.1 million at the end of 2008 and that in the first eight months of this year UNHCR figures show that the number of asylum applications has declined from the same period last year. I ask the Acting Prime Minister: why is the government trying to trick the Australian people with spin rather than admitting its policy failure has rolled out the red carpet to people smugglers?

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