Chris Bowen (McMahon, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Immigration and Citizenship) Share this | Hansard source

The opposition's point is to say: 'You can have any kind of processing you want, providing it is our policy. You can have any type of offshore processing you want, providing that it is on Nauru.' That is not acceptable to the government. The reason it is not acceptable is that, after taking all the expert advice, we have reached the conclusion that there is a much more effective deterrent—the deterrent of the arrangement with Malaysia. I note the current member for Cook says it would not be a deterrent. The previous member for Cook does not quite agree. The previous member for Cook said today, 'There's no denying the fact that the Malaysian solution'—even though I do not think that is the optimum one, in fairness to the previous member for Cook—'was the one the people smugglers were concerned about. And now there is certainly the ability to send boats down to Australia without the concern that the individual asylum seekers are going to be returned to Malaysia.'

The Malaysia arrangement has never been given the chance to be implemented, but it is a policy which would provide the deterrent for people making the dangerous journey by boat to Australia because they feel it provides them with the greatest chance of resettlement in Australia, a point made very eloquently by Prime Minister Najib during his recent visit to Australia. Prime Minister Najib also rejected the outrageous attacks on Malaysia's reputation and policy by those who sit opposite.

We have a chance to ensure that we never see the type of incident we saw last night, that I as minister—or the member for Cook if he were minister—never has to get the type of phone call that I received last night. This parliament should take that opportunity. (Time expired)

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