Michaelia Cash (WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Immigration) Share this | Hansard source

I am used to the minister, when responding to questions, stretching the truth; but I have to say, in the short time that Senator Thistlethwaite has been here, I am very disappointed that he seems to have decided to indulge in the same type of misleading of the Senate that the minister does. The statistics that Senator Thistlethwaite quotes in relation to Nauru are just plain wrong. They are not the statistics that Mr Metcalfe, the secretary of the department, gave to Senator Brandis and others when the coalition was briefed by Mr Metcalfe in relation to the government's Malaysia solution. They are also not the statistics that are quoted by the Labor Minister for Immigration and Citizenship, Mr Bowen, in a press release dated Tuesday, 2 February 2010. These are the statistics, the correct statistics, as put forward by Mr Bowen, the immigration minister. Under John Howard's Pacific solution 1,637 people were taken to Nauru. How many were resettled in Australia? This is the minister for immigration's statistic: 705. Seven hundred and five people out of 1,637—that is, 43 per cent—according to the minister for immigration's own press release, were resettled in Australia. It is not the 95 per cent that the Labor Party likes to throw around so that they can distort the situation as it was in Nauru. For those on the other side to stand up and say that Nauru did not work, which part of the former Howard government's policies that stopped the boats don't you understand?

What we saw in question time today was yet again a government that, because of misplaced pride, because of sheer stubbornness, will not accept that if they want offshore processing they can have it tomorrow. It is the Prime Minister of Australia who consistently tells the people that she wants offshore processing. Well, if the Prime Minister of Australia listens to the coalition, she will know that this can be delivered by us in agreement with the Labor Party tomorrow. Bring it on tomorrow and we will vote for it. All that we ask is this: we ask the Prime Minister to keep her word to the Australian people when she said again to the Australian people, 'I would rule out anywhere that is not a signatory to the refugee convention.' So to ensure that we have responsible government in Australia the coalition are putting forward an amendment that will ensure that the current Prime Minister of Australia is actually able to honour her word to the Australian people that she will rule out anywhere that is not a signatory to the refugee convention. That is exactly what our amendment ensures. It ensures that, when Australia transfers an asylum seeker to a third party, that third party has to be a signatory to the United Nations refugee convention.

Our amendment is not limited to Nauru, and the Labor Party know that. Our amendment asks only that, in terms of responsible government, in discharging our moral obligations and in ensuring that the Prime Minister of Australia keeps her word to the Australian people that she will never, ever send a person to a country that has not signed up to the UN convention, the Labor Party accept our small amendment. (Time expired)

Question agreed to.