Mark Arbib (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Parliamentary Secretary for Government Service Delivery) Share this | Hansard source

The shadow minister said:

I don’t think we need to again have Nauru and Manus Island operating, because we’ve got of course Christmas Island. There’s a $360 million new detention centre sitting there.

Are the coalition coming into this chamber today and saying, ‘Let’s go back to the Pacific solution?’ No. Are coalition senators coming back today and saying, ‘Let’s go back to temporary protection visas?’ No. In fact, a joint standing committee looking at immigration detention measures released a report in December 2008. It was endorsed by shadow immigration minister Sharman Stone and Liberal MP Danna Vale. Senator Fierravanti-Wells left that out today, but it is useful information and I think other senators should know. The committee’s report endorsed the Rudd government’s abolition of the former Prime Minister’s inhumane approach to immigration detention. Let’s get the quote in. This is from the report, signed by the shadow minister:

The series of recommendations we have made will build on the new immigration detention values and strike a fair balance between protection of the Australian community and our obligations towards those in immigration detention.

The opposition’s own spokesperson has outlined how little difference there is in mandatory detention and border protection. You do not want to go back to the Pacific solution and neither do the government. You do not want to go back to temporary protection visas and neither do we. We do not want to go back to having women and children in endless detention, and I hope that you do not want to go back to that either. Of course, your spokesperson has said that, and I hope the senators on the other side will agree with that.

In terms of temporary protection visas, Senator Fierravanti-Wells made the point that there was a surge of asylum seekers when the government ended temporary protection visas, which is absolute rubbish. TPVs did not stop boats arriving.