Maria Vamvakinou (Calwell, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I have a question for the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs. I am seeking some clarification in relation to a proposed detention facility in Broadmeadows. I have received correspondence from the Minister for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs informing me and the community that the government has decided not to proceed with its proposed immigration detention facility at this stage. I also have recently received a letter from the parliamentary secretary—and I thank him for it and for his obvious interest in this matter—indicating that the government is not proceeding with the previously announced large-scale facility. I am seeking clarification as to whether it is not proceeding at all or not proceeding at this stage.

If you are not proceeding at this stage, I would like your views on any justification the government may have for the need for a large-scale detention centre in Broadmeadows at some time in the future. If you are not proceeding at all in favour of the small-scale detention centre, there is the matter of the surplus land. There have been many discussions with the council and me in relation to the value of this land. In the past I have lobbied for this land, given its historical value, to be gifted to the community for community use, but I am also mindful of my council’s interest in the economic importance of this land and its situation in an industrial park. So I would like your views and some clarification on that matter of ‘at this stage’ or ‘not at all’.

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