Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

I would have thought it was unremarkable to observe that a question like that would have been asked with the support of the tactics committee of the Liberal Party and the National Party. I am not sure whether it would have necessarily had the support of the member for McMillan or the member for Pearce or the member for Kooyong or other members in this place, but there you go.

The honourable member asked questions about asylum seekers and referred to some statistics on that question. I would remind the honourable member that in the period of the Howard government there were around 13,663 arrivals in Australia. In the period that this government has been in office—and this is the most recent figure that I have available—as of 30 August, for this year, it is 1,025. Secondly, the honourable member referred to changes in government policy. I presume the honourable member is referring in particular to the report that the government released in July 2008, called ‘New directions for detention policy’. Recommendation 12 of the report read as follows:

The committee—

Referring to the relevant parliamentary committee—

recommends that, as a priority, the Australian Government introduce amendments to the Migration Act 1958 to enshrine in legislation the reforms to immigration detention policy announced by the Minister for Immigration and Citizenship.

The day the report was released, the member for Murray, who was a member of the parliamentary committee, said, ‘Labor is very much echoing what we did.’ When asked whether she accepts the recommendations, she said, ‘I do.’

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