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

The government does not support these amendments, essentially for the reason I explained before—they are a complete legal nonsense. Australia does not detain anyone on Manus Island or Nauru. The governments of those nations detain those people in their own centres conducted by them. Senator Hanson-Young, the management of a regional processing centre on Nauru or Papua New Guinea is entirely a matter for the government of Nauru and the government Papua New Guinea. We cannot legislate for the way in which they manage regional processing centres.