Sarah Hanson-Young (SA, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister representing the Prime Minister, Senator Brandis. Senator, there are 90 children, including 37 babies born in Australia, whose families are anxiously awaiting the outcome of the High Court ruling scheduled to come down tomorrow. If these families lose their case, the government will have to choose whether to send them back to Nauru, the island prison, or to allow them to stay here in Australia. Will the Prime Minister, Mr Turnbull, let these babies, children and families stay here so that they can have their claims assessed legally, fairly and safely?

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

Senator Hanson-Young, for reasons that are perhaps too obvious to state, I am not going to speculate on what the High Court might decide tomorrow, what its reasons for any decision that it makes might be and what the implications of any such decision might be. We will have to wait until tomorrow morning when Their Honours deliver their judgement, and the government will consider it carefully.

Senator Hanson-Young, you raised the issue of children in detention. There are fewer than 100 children in detention today. Under the previous government, under policies that you supported, that number peaked at 1,992. There were 1,992 children in detention 2½ years ago, and this government, through its successful border protection policies and the release of those children and their families into the community, has reduced that number from almost 2,000 to fewer than 100. The history of this government's policy in this area has been the history of releasing children from detention, reducing the number from almost 2,000 to fewer than 100.

Sarah Hanson-Young (SA, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask a supplementary question. As stated, there are still 90 children here in Australian detention, and I believe all of their lives matter, actually. Without certainty, these children and their families cannot integrate into our community and begin to thrive and prosper, to rebuild their lives. Will the Prime Minister help protect these children, or will he be putting them on the next plane to the hell of Nauru?

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

Senator Hanson-Young, the government's good faith in this regard could not be more obvious from the fact that more than 95 per cent of the children who were left in detention under the previous Labor government have been released by this coalition government. And we are continuing to release children from detention as soon as we can—as soon as we can. How can you possibly sit there, Senator Hanson-Young, with a legacy of almost 2,000 children in detention 2½ years ago and having seen that number reduced by more than 95 per cent, as you acknowledge yourself, to 90 children today and deny that this government is committed to releasing those children from detention? That is precisely what we have done.

Sarah Hanson-Young (SA, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask a further supplementary question. I note that my question still has not been answered. We know that some of these women and the children who are here pending the removal to Nauru were brought here because they were sexually assaulted, raped and abused during their time in Nauru. If we won't protect them now, who will?

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

Senator Hanson-Young, the best way to protect these people is to ensure the problem is solved, and we have solved it. Let me take you back, Senator Hanson-Young, to where we were 2½ years ago when the coalition government was elected. We had gone through a period during which more than 1,200 lives were lost at sea, in which the number of children in detention peaked at 1,992. And now, as result of the policies of this government, not a single life has been lost at sea, and the number of children in detention has gone from 1,992 to 90. How can you sit there, Senator Hanson-Young, with a straight face and suggest that that is not an extraordinary improvement?