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

In answer to the member's question, given the member has served as a minister for immigration in an earlier government, he would be well aware that government turns to the Solicitor-General for legal advice. We have received legal advice, we have released it publicly, and the opposition has been briefed on it. I could take the member to many parts of the legal advice but perhaps it will suffice to take him to paragraph 3, where the Solicitor-General—and the Solicitor-General has been working with other legal advisers so obviously it is the considered opinion—says:

Our short advice is as follows. In the light of—

and then he refers to the High Court case—

Plaintiff M70 we do not have reasonable confidence on the material with which we have been briefed that the power conferred by s 198A could currently be exercised to take asylum seekers from Australia to either Nauru or to PNG for determination of their refugee status.

They are the words of the Solicitor-General.

See this speech in context