Chris Bowen (McMahon, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Immigration and Citizenship) Share this | Hansard source

Mr Burnside said, ‘I think there is a respectable argument that if officers of the Australian Commonwealth operating in Nauru make a life and death decision they also would be subject in the same way to review that the High Court has said today.’

It is important when considering implications of the High Court case that we base our policy responses on the consideration of the facts. I noticed on Lateline on Thursday night the member for Cook was asked to respond to my suggestion that the so-called Nauru solution might be caught up in the High Court case. The member for Cook said this:

Well, if Chris Bowen’s right, then that means the 47,000 applications that were made offshore for protections visas in Australian missions and with Australian officials around the world or the thousands of other applications that are made for skilled visas and others would all be reviewable by the High Court.

That is what the member for Cook said—‘If Chris Bowen’s right, this would need to be true.’ Guess what? It is true. The honourable member for Cook appears to be unaware that those applications are subject to judicial review by Australian courts. It just goes to show that when it comes to policy it is important to be good at more than sound grabs. It is also important to be good at sound policy, which the honourable member for Cook and his colleagues appear not able to be. The government will continue to work through the implications of the High Court decision in a calm and methodical manner, and the opposition might care to do the same in relation to the High Court implications for their own policy.

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