Karen Andrews (McPherson, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Home Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Home Affairs. I refer to her response in the House yesterday when she said that there was quite a process involved in redesignating Nauru as a regional processing country. A key process is consulting and receiving advice from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Given that the minister admitted that she was made aware of the lapse on 15 December, why did the minister not write to the UNHCR until 27 January? Given the urgency of this situation, why did the minister wait six weeks to do anything?

Clare O'Neil (Hotham, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Home Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I do note the longstanding interest of the shadow minister in the views of the UN. I think the shadow minister should be well aware of the obligations under 198AB and 198AC of the Migration Act, which require me to consult with the United Nations. I have a statutory obligation to do that. I assume she is aware that I did that, because I tabled a statement to that effect in the parliament on Tuesday. I met the obligations set out for me in the act, and this problem was fixed on Tuesday.