Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for his question. Obviously the government budgets, as governments in the past have budgeted, for the detention of unauthorised arrivals. For example, the Howard government spent, on the construction of Christmas Island, hundreds of millions of dollars in order to build that facility. So, detention arrangements do have to be paid for, and the government has made appropriate provision to pay for those detention arrangements.

I would also say to the member that he would have heard me in this House in the past describe the opposition’s slogan in relation to unauthorised arrivals—its three-word slogan, a three-word slogan that it went to the election with. Now I am in a position—

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