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

Clearly, we are very concerned to ensure it does not occur again. As people are aware, when you have a large number of people in detention who are stressed and worried about whether their claims for asylum will be accepted, there are tensions involved. That has always been the case. I might refer the senator to the disruptions, violence and burning of buildings et cetera that occurred under the previous government’s detention regime. This is nothing new. What we had on this occasion was not an attack on the building or on the staff but a fight between groups of detainees that got out of hand. That is very concerning and, as I said, those responsible, if we can identify them, will be prosecuted after an AFP investigation. Clearly, security at the centre will be tightened to ensure we do not have an incident like this again, but this is a feature, obviously, of detention. (Time expired)