George Brandis (Queensland, Liberal Party, Shadow Attorney-General) Share this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister representing the Minister for Immigration and Citizenship, Senator Carr. I refer the minister to the Prime Minister's statement in the House of Representatives yesterday about the Malaysian solution:

The arrangement remains for the transfer of 800 people. We have the clearest possible advice from the experts that advise government that it is the plan with the maximum deterrence effect.

Is the minister aware that at the briefing given to the opposition in Brisbane last Wednesday, the Secretary of the Department of Immigration and Citizenship, Mr Andrew Metcalfe, told Mr Abbott, Mr Morrison and me that the government's estimate that the removal of 800 asylum seekers to Malaysia was the number it would take to break the people-smugglers' business model was 'just conjecture'? Does that not mean that the government's entire border protection policy is based on nothing more than a guess?