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

This comes from a party opposite which presided over nearly 250 boats arriving in Australia with nearly 15,000 people, and in the period that this government has been in office—about two years now—some 2,100 people have come to this country. And of course in all those circumstances what happens is a product of international security circumstances, most recently the war in Sri Lanka. What is remarkable about, shall I say, ‘special deals’ is the arrangements which those opposite had when it came to the Pacific solution. The hairy-chested statements: ‘All to the Pacific solution; not to come to Australia,’ and 60 per cent of those sent to the Pacific solution by the member for Berowra became permanent residents of Australia. Or, shall I say, the hairy-chestedness of: ‘We’re going to bring in temporary protection visas to show that we’re really tough,’ only for 90 per cent of those 10,000 people who were granted temporary protection visas to end up as permanent residents of Australia.

What we have here is a fundamental gap between what they say, what they have done, and what they would do. Our policy is absolutely clear-cut. What we have said from the beginning is that these individuals on these vessels will not be processed in Australia. They will be processed in Indonesia, despite their demands. We have rejected those demands, and processed in Indonesia they will be.

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