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

If the minister had been here for the MPI, he would have heard me referring to those reports yesterday. Mr President, I ask a supplementary question. Since the Rudd government caved in and weakened Australia’s immigration policies in July 2008, figures in the DIAC annual report show a staggering 33 per cent increase in applications for onshore protection visas in just one year and a 42 per cent increase over two years. Given these figures, how can the minister continue to flatly deny that Labor’s changes to the immigration policies have not caused any increases?