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

knows that government relies on the advice of the Solicitor-General, he nodded. That would have been his experience as a minister. It is our experience and my experience as Prime Minister, and the advice of the Solicitor-General is as I have outlined it.

That is before we get very complex set of questions involving unaccompanied minors. The minister, having served as a minister for immigration, is well aware of the very complex set of legal and policy questions involving unaccompanied minors, and the High Court has had something to say about the law involving unaccompanied minors as well. And so, relying on the Solicitor-General's advice, the factual circumstance that the government finds itself in, and that all members of this parliament find themselves in, is that the legal advice available to us is that one could not commence processing offshore without incurring legal risk. The Solicitor-General has particularly pointed to legal risks also involving complex questions around unaccompanied minors. That is the legal issue.

The government is seeking to resolve that legal issue in the national interest so this government and future governments have the kind of power in relation to offshore processing that the member had at his disposal when he was minister for immigration when he did have asylum seekers processed in a non-refugee convention country. I say to the member who has asked the question that maybe he might want to consider and advise his counterparts in the opposition how inappropriate it is for them to try to manoeuvre this parliament into the end of offshore processing by basing their argument on the refugee convention when in government their actions were not associated with refugee convention countries. There is a word for that, and it is called hypocrisy.

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