Gary Humphries (ACT, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Immigration and Citizenship, Senator Evans. Will the minister tell the Senate what plans are in place henceforth to deal with asylum seekers who, encouraged by the government’s special deal for those on the Oceanic Viking, decide to use similar tactics in order to obtain their own special deal to jump the queues?

Chris Evans (WA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Government in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

As Senator Humphries knows, this government will continue to provide strong border security in managing Australia’s borders. As a key part of that—

Opposition Senators:

Opposition senators interjecting—

John Hogg (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Evans, resume your seat. As I have pointed out to senators before, the time for debating these issues is post question time.

Chris Evans (WA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Government in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The key features of those arrangements are the same as those applied under the previous Howard government—that is, the excision of offshore islands, which has been maintained; the processing offshore but on Australian territory at Christmas Island and the use of the Christmas Island detention centre built by the previous government; and the mandatory detention of all irregular maritime arrivals. So all persons who seek to enter Australia by boat in an unauthorised manner are detained and transported to Christmas Island, where they are mandatorily detained while they undergo health, security and identity checks. If they seek asylum, they are processed under the normal processes to see whether or not they are refugees.

Those measures, including all the maritime surveillance et cetera, are still in place. We have in fact boosted the amount of maritime surveillance in our northern waters. We have increased resources by about $650 million in the 2009 budget over four years as part of strengthening national security and border protection. We will continue to provide that sort of strong protection and interception of unauthorised arrivals and we will deal with them in the way that we outlined before the election and which we have applied since coming to government. People smugglers will say or do anything to sell people passage. It is a constant battle dealing with the messages that they send. But people know that they will be detained mandatorily if they seek to enter Australia in an unauthorised way.

Gary Humphries (ACT, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask a supplementary question. To be completely clear, then, can the government assure the Senate that it will never again make a special deal for asylum seekers or for the people smugglers who assist them?

Chris Evans (WA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Government in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

As I have made very clear, there is no special deal. But I do want to ask whether the opposition is suggesting that we should not have dispatched Australian resources to rescue those people at sea.

Opposition Senators:

Opposition senators interjecting—

Chris Evans (WA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Government in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is the issue. The issue is this: do you agree or do you not agree that we should have rescued those people at sea? Is your answer no, that we should have let them drown? If that is the opposition’s position, fine. It is not what I support. If in fact you supported that decision, the only choice you have—

Honourable Senators:

Honourable senators interjecting—

John Hogg (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! When there is order we will proceed.

Chris Evans (WA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Government in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Having taken the decision to rescue those people at sea you then had the choice of whether the Australian government sought to bring them directly to Christmas Island as recommended by the Liberal Premier of Western Australia, Mr Barnett, or sought to have them disembark in Indonesia in accordance with international law of the sea requirements. We chose to disembark them in Indonesia. (Time expired)

Gary Humphries (ACT, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask a further supplementary question. Given that the minister will not give an assurance that there will be no more special deals and given that another four boats and 137 people have arrived in the last week alone, will the minister now admit that Labor has lost control of Australia’s borders?

Chris Evans (WA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Government in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I absolutely deny that claim and I remind Senator Humphries that despite the significant numbers of arrivals this year, particularly from Sri Lanka and Afghanistan, we are still nowhere near the number of annual arrivals in at least two years of the Howard government. You might recall that. And did that indicate that the Howard government was weak on border security?

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

We fixed it.

Chris Evans (WA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Government in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Is that your claim? Of course not. If you fixed it, why did you build an 800-bed detention centre? Because it is a nonsense. We all know that internationally all countries are dealing with unauthorised, irregular movement of people. These come as situations worsen in various countries. We are dealing at the moment with a lot of people fleeing Sri Lanka and Afghanistan. We will continue to run a border protection system that has integrity and that is strong and will meet the challenge of those movements. (Time expired)