Brett Whiteley (Braddon, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Immigration and Border Protection. Will the minister inform the House of any current calls to reopen immigration detention centres in Australia? What is the government's response to such a request?

Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Minister for Immigration and Border Protection) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Braddon for his question. I am sure the federal member for Braddon would agree, as would the Prime Minister, that, if there is a Liberal candidate for the state seat of Braddon in the upcoming Tasmanian elections, the former Senator Guy Barnett would make an excellent member for Braddon in the Tasmanian parliament.

The member for Braddon will know that the government's strong border protection policies are designed to do three things in particular: firstly, to stop the deaths that were occurring at sea; secondly, to restore access to the offshore refugee program that was being denied by the previous government's failures—where more than 15,000 people missed out on permanent protection visas while waiting offshore because those visas went to people who came on a boat; and thirdly, to stop the cost.

More than $11 billion in budget blowouts occurred under the previous government's failures. One of the most significant of those was the massive expansion in the onshore detention network which occurred as a result of their border failures. You could say that it was a 'building the detention centre revolution' that the previous government was running. They turned it into their own economic stimulus program all around the country which even extended to Tasmania.

In relation to these issues we are having success. I can inform the House today that it is 76 days since there has been a successful people smuggling venture to Australia. I can inform the House that there are an additional 4,000, at minimum, extra places in the special humanitarian program, which was ground down under the previous government because they gave those visas to people who came on boats.

I can inform the House, as I announced earlier this year, that this government has already closed four immigration detention centres at Pontville, at Port Augusta, at Scherger and at Leonora, which represents savings of $88 million every single year. And there will be more closures of these centres because that is the dividend of stronger border protection policies. But I am disappointed to say that there are some parties in this country, particularly in the Tasmanian state election, that want to reopen detention centres. In particular the Greens in Tasmania are saying—after going against detention centres for all their political lives—that they want to reopen the Pontville detention centre.

In addition to that, the Labor candidate for Denison is also saying that she wants the Pontville detention centre to reopen and wants to send women and children there. It was the policy of the former immigration minister, now the Manager of Opposition Business, to get women and children out of that centre. So I am unclear about what the policy of the Labor Party is. What I do know is that when I say 'offshore processing' I do not mean Tasmania, and we will not be reopening the centre in Pontville.