Gary Humphries (ACT, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Citizenship) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Immigration and Citizenship, Senator Evans. Can the minister confirm the following report in today’s Herald Sun:

Darwin’s immigration detention centre has been on alert for the arrival of several hundred asylum seekers from Christmas Island, which is close to overflowing.

Will the minister take this opportunity now to rule out absolutely the use of Darwin or any other mainland facility for housing asylum seekers?

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

I thank Senator Humphries for the question, although I am sure he is not serious about the second part of it. There was some reporting in the News Ltd newspapers today, some of which was accurate based on my public statements over many months, some of which was based on alleged intelligence information—which, obviously, I would not comment on, but the journalists claimed to have been briefed on intelligence information—but a lot of it was based on what was already on the record. What is on the record, as Senator Humphries well knows, is that for months and months now the government has made it clear that if we need extra capacity beyond that which is on Christmas Island we would use the detention immigration centre in Darwin—the one built by the Howard government for that purpose. We would use that centre for the purpose of meeting any extra demand beyond our capacity on Christmas Island. I also made it clear that we would transfer people from Christmas Island for the final stages of processing if we would need to use that capacity. This is all on the public record. It has been on the public record for months.

I take the opportunity too to correct the misinformation that Mr Morrison, the opposition’s spokesman on immigration, continues to peddle. That is, those persons who are transferred from Christmas Island will be treated legally as offshore entry persons—that is the legal status under the Howard government’s legislation. So persons who have been processed initially on Christmas Island, which is our plan, will remain offshore entry persons and have the legal regime attached to that definition. I can confirm to Senator Humphries and the Senate what I have said publicly now for at least six months.

Gary Humphries (ACT, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Citizenship) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask a supplementary question. I take it from Senator Evans that that is a no. Will the minister guarantee, then, that health and security checks on Christmas Island will not be compromised by the current huge influx of asylum seekers as a result of Labor’s border protection policy failure? How much more will this policy failure cost Australian taxpayers?

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

I can certainly assure the Senate that there will be no compromising of health and security checks. The health and security checks and the identity checks conducted by this government on Christmas Island are the same processes that were adopted by the previous government. They are long-established immigration practices. We are currently using the Howard government purpose-built detention centre on Christmas Island, a centre that the Howard government built to meet this very need.

Michael Ronaldson (Victoria, Liberal Party, Shadow Special Minister of State and Scrutiny of Government Waste) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It was a short-term facility—

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

Senator, I refer to the Christmas Island centre, which cost $400 million, built by the previous government to meet this very purpose—to meet the needs of Australia when we have large numbers of unauthorised arrivals. We are using that and we are using the Darwin centre, which was also built by the Howard government.

Gary Humphries (ACT, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Citizenship) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask a further supplementary question. I thank the minister for his praise of the Howard government’s border protection policies. It is a pity we could not have had that six or seven years ago. I ask the minister: if six boats a week is not enough to convince him that the Labor Party’s border protection policy has been an abysmal failure, how many more boats do we need?

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

I would interested in Senator Ruddock’s—Senator Humphries’s—

Honourable Senators:

Honourable senators interjecting—

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

Well, he has been channelling him lately and we know who is writing the Liberal Party policy, if we ever get one. I note that Mr Ruddock’s chief of staff is now the chief of staff to Mr Morrison. We know who is the puppeteer and who is the puppet. I remind the senator that the record of arrivals was 2,245 people on 29 boats in less than 12 weeks. When was that record set? That was in 1999-2000 under the Howard government. If you want to ask me about numbers, I am happy to debate numbers and I am happy to tell you who the record holders are, and that is your side of politics.