Concetta Fierravanti-Wells (NSW, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Immigration and Shadow Parliamentary Secretary Assisting the Leader in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Immigration and Citizenship, Senator Evans. Minister, I refer to the answer given by Mr Metcalfe, the secretary of your department, at Senate estimates on 20 October that an asylum seeker who is transferred from Christmas Island to Australia after processing has commenced but is not completed will ‘remain an excised person’. With the overcrowding and increased tensions on Christmas Island, is the government now planning to increasingly use this procedure early on in the processing period as a way of fast-tracking people from Christmas Island and into mainland detention facilities?