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

On these important questions of national interest, and in answer to the Leader of the Opposition's question, the Leader of the Opposition has received a briefing from the secretary of the department of immigration and others. That briefing has made clear to him their advice, and their advice is that, out of the options that government has at its disposal, Malaysia is the option with the maximum deterrence effect. I understand that on this question of national interest the Leader of the Opposition may well come to a different view. That is a matter for him. Executive government—this government—is determined to implement the Malaysia arrangement and to start a processing centre in accordance with our understandings with the government of PNG. I do not ask the Leader of the Opposition to endorse that. I do not ask him to stop criticising it. I do not ask him to do anything in relation to that other than what he has done for many weeks now, which is to indicate that he does not believe in it, does not support it, does not agree with it and is full of criticisms of it. He should continue to do that if that is what he has come to in his mind as the best decision in all good conscience.

What I am asking of the Leader of the Opposition is that, when amendments to the Migration Act come before this parliament—which this executive government does require in order to implement the arrangement with Malaysia and the centre in PNG, and which an alternative government, were one ever elected which had the Nauru proposal as its policy, would need to implement that policy to put it beyond legal doubt and to make modifications in relation to unaccompanied minors—he support that legislation. Behind all of this partisanship is one central fact: the government believes in and wants to implement offshore arrangements in relation to refugees and asylum seekers. The Leader of the Opposition wants to implement offshore arrangements in relation to asylum seekers. In order to do so in a way which is beyond legal doubt the Migration Act needs amending, so in the national interest I believe we should be able to agree on that.

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