Bill Shorten (Maribyrnong, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Does the Prime Minister believe that the Secretary of the Attorney-General's Department gave truthful evidence to Senate estimates yesterday?

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

There will be silence on my left!

Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Of course I have full confidence in the Secretary of the Attorney-General's Department, and I have absolute faith in the veracity of the Secretary of the Attorney-General's Department. I welcome this line of questioning though, because what it emphasises is the core problem, and this is why this government has lost confidence in the President of the Human Rights Commission.

The President of the Human Rights Commission chose not to inquire into children in detention when there were almost 2,000 in detention, because she consulted with Labor ministers and decided that the inquiry would be political. But, having refused to have a political inquiry in the time of the Labor government, she goes right ahead and has a political inquiry under this government, even though the number of children in detention has fallen from almost 2,000 to under 200. So there is a 90 per cent reduction in the number of children in detention—90 per cent plus, almost a 95 per cent reduction in the number of children in immigration detention—thanks to the policies of this government, thanks to our stopping the boats, and this is when the President of the Human Rights Commission decides to have an inquiry.

Like the President of the Human Rights Commission, I want to see the children out of detention. The only way to get the children out of detention is to stop those boats, and that is exactly what this government has done. That is exactly what members opposite were not capable of doing. And that is why the most compassionate thing you can do, the best thing you can do, is stop the boats. You failed; we succeeded.