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

I think that is a Greens question, but I can tell the senator that there are no plans to open the Baxter detention centre. We have made it very clear that we are increasing the detention capacity on the mainland. We have also made it clear that we are looking at alternative accommodation arrangements to meet the profile of the asylum seekers we are dealing with. Our most pressing need is to find accommodation for families, because we will not ship them off to a South Pacific island yet unnamed. The Liberal Party have announced they are going to continue to detain children on offshore islands. You are going to lock kids up in detention camps on offshore islands, if you can find one to take them. We are trying to provide appropriate accommodation for families, not locking them up—and, Senator, families are not going to Curtin, so catch up with the news.