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

The key features of those arrangements are the same as those applied under the previous Howard government—that is, the excision of offshore islands, which has been maintained; the processing offshore but on Australian territory at Christmas Island and the use of the Christmas Island detention centre built by the previous government; and the mandatory detention of all irregular maritime arrivals. So all persons who seek to enter Australia by boat in an unauthorised manner are detained and transported to Christmas Island, where they are mandatorily detained while they undergo health, security and identity checks. If they seek asylum, they are processed under the normal processes to see whether or not they are refugees.

Those measures, including all the maritime surveillance et cetera, are still in place. We have in fact boosted the amount of maritime surveillance in our northern waters. We have increased resources by about $650 million in the 2009 budget over four years as part of strengthening national security and border protection. We will continue to provide that sort of strong protection and interception of unauthorised arrivals and we will deal with them in the way that we outlined before the election and which we have applied since coming to government. People smugglers will say or do anything to sell people passage. It is a constant battle dealing with the messages that they send. But people know that they will be detained mandatorily if they seek to enter Australia in an unauthorised way.