Chris Evans (WA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

My question is directed to Senator Vanstone, the Minister for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs. I again refer her to the Ombudsman’s report of yesterday where it reveals that officers of her department knew as far back as September 2002 that Australian citizens, including Australian children with mental health issues, had been detained. Doesn’t this mean that the department knew that Australian citizens had been held in detention long before the media discovered the Rau and Alvarez scandals in 2005? Does the minister stand by her previous claims that this information was not passed up the line and that neither she, nor her predecessor, Mr Ruddock, nor senior departmental officials were ever told about what was going on? Are we to seriously believe that neither the minister nor senior departmental officials got told that Australian citizens, including children, were locked up in detention, despite emails circulating in the department to that effect? Will anyone in the government take responsibility for these appalling cases?