Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

Countries do not send asylum seekers. Either the Deputy Leader of the Opposition has just revealed a complete misunderstanding of this area of policy or she is deliberately trying to confuse Australians about why people get on the move. People get on the move for a variety of treasons—some of them fleeing war, some of them fleeing poverty, some of them fleeing persecution and some of them engaging in forward movement because they believe they will get better opportunity and prosperity for their families. People move for all sorts of reasons, but their countries do not send them; they get on the move. There is only a limited number who are entitled to be considered refugees under the Convention relating to the Status of Refugees and they are people who are fleeing persecution. To those people, as a result of our signatory of the refugee convention, we owe some special care and obligations. That signatory of the refugee convention has been bipartisan politics in this country since it was entered into.

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