Cathy McGowan (Indi, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Immigration and Border Protection and it's about Manus Island. Can you, Minister, provide details of the government's plan to manage the closure of the regional processing centre on 31 October, as this week I've had numerous representations from my constituents, Rural Australians for Refugees, the UNHCR and the Red Cross seeking more information and a response from the government that shows we can both protect our borders and show compassion, mercy and justice?

Peter Dutton (Dickson, Liberal Party, Minister for Immigration and Border Protection) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the honourable member for her question. I know that it's a heartfelt question. On a number of occasions, the honourable member has made representations to me on behalf of children who are here on visas and people who are here on visas otherwise who may have illnesses and want an extended stay in Australia, and I acknowledge her compassion and the work that she does in this area. It's important to her and it's important to her community, and I'm very pleased to take the question from her today.

I can inform the member that I met with Prime Minister O'Neill in Port Moresby on 1 September and we continued our case from the Australian government's perspective—that is, that we want to see the regional processing centre closed by 31 October. There are obviously a lot of details and logistics to be worked through, and some of the compound has already been dismantled, so that process will continue. Prime Minister O'Neill expressed to me that his government was intent on seeing the regional processing centre close as well. We have spoken with Prime Minister O'Neill and with my counterpart, the new minister Petrus Thomas, about the way in which the logistics could operate. That might include, for example, those people, who total about 200, who have been found not to be refugees being moved into an alternative place of detention away from the regional processing centre, given that they have no lawful claim to be in PNG. There are, in total, just under a hundred or so who have applied for packages to go back to their country of origin. We've had a record number of people who have taken up offers to return to their country of origin given that they don't have legitimate claims to make in PNG. There is capacity within the East Lorengau centre for about 400 people to be accommodated there, and we will work with the PNG government in helping them provide services to those people.

Going to the compassionate aspect and the spirit in which the member asked this question, we have to do it in a way where we don't see boats restart. What all of us recognise is that the threat of people smuggling has not gone away. Over the course of the last couple of years, with the success of Operation Sovereign Borders, we've had to turn back 31 boats, and we've done that in a way where we've seen no loss of life. All of us have seen the pictures and heard the accounts of the women and children being pulled from the water, and the half-eaten bodies and all of the graphic detail that goes with it. We've not presided over a death at sea under this government, and I don't intend to start now. That is the most compassionate response that we can provide. We aren't going to put ourselves into a position where we see boats restart. We've been very clear that if people on Manus Island or on Nauru have sought to come to our country by boat they will not ever settle permanently in this country. That's the message that the people smugglers need to continue to hear today.