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

Mr President, I ask a further supplementary question. I refer to the 89 rejected Sri Lankan asylum seekers who were the first to be transported off Christmas Island to Villawood. At the time, the Minister for Immigration said 'they are not refugees and they ought to leave the country' and the Prime Minister said 'they are currently being processed for return back home'. Can the minister confirm that, two years later, only four have returned home and the rest are still in Australia, including 50 who have been granted permanent visas? Isn't this just another example of how Labor's failed border protection policy is 'once you get here you never have to leave'?