Senate debates

Wednesday, 4 December 2019

Questions without Notice

Immigration Detention

2:12 pm

Photo of Mathias CormannMathias Cormann (WA, Liberal Party, Vice-President of the Executive Council) Share this | Hansard source

The first point I would make is that these statements are not inconsistent with each other. That's the first point. The second point I would make again is that there is absolutely no secret deal. The government has not agreed to any changes in policy or administration when it comes to our border protection or resettlement arrangements. What we have done, and we very much appreciate the way Senator Lambie has engaged with us, is provide her with extensive and detailed briefings—we have provided her with classified briefings—about the way the government is going about protecting our borders and going about making sure that asylum seekers receive appropriate medical treatment. We made sure she fully understood what we are doing to properly give effect to resettlement arrangements. These briefings were at the classified 'secret' level. Senator Lambie, of course, made it her business to better understand what the government is doing. At the end of the process, Senator Lambie made it clear, through her vote in this chamber, that she was satisfied that the conditions were met for the medevac bill to be repealed, as it should be.

The Labor-Greens medevac bill was bad legislation. It weakened our national security arrangements, whereas Senator Lambie and the majority of senators have voted for stronger national security arrangements. We and all Australians very much thank Senator Lambie for that.

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