Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Immigration and Citizenship) Share this | Hansard source

In recent times there have been a number of reports about—and the Attorney referred earlier to this—the number of people who have been transferred from Christmas Island, due to the overcrowding and unprecedented rate of arrivals, to mainland places like Leonora and the recently reopened Curtin detention centre. I understand that the government has received a range of propositions and applications from various places around the country in relation to where other potential detention facilities might be located to cope with the unprecedented rate of arrivals—three boats per week as opposed to three boats per year under the last six years of the coalition government. I would be interested to know from the Attorney in considering these appropriations how many additional places are required in the department’s view to cope with the increase in arrivals and the detention population as it stands and as it is expected to increase over the next 12 months? How many extra beds are they looking for and in what places are they seeking to place those beds?

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