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

I am conveying to the House expert advice we have been given which has also been available to the Leader of the Opposition. This has the maximum deterrence effects. It smashes the people smugglers' business model because it takes away from them the very product they seek to sell, which is that people will be processed and end up in Australia. Whilst the Leader of the Opposition may contest all of this—and I know that he does—that is the advice that has been provided to us, and that is the advice that we are relying on. Once again, I say to the opposition that it is open to them to say they do not want to rely on this advice. It is open to them to say that they prefer a different policy solution. It is open to them to identify that policy solution as Nauru. That is a matter for them. Then they would have to answer a series of questions about costs, what happens when it is full and what happens when the expert advice proves to be right that there is no deterrence effect and the asylum seekers are resettled here in Australia. That will be a matter for them, but the important point before this parliament is not the contest between our plan and the opposition's plan. The important point that will come before the parliament next week is having the legislative foundation stone so executive government can implement the plan that it prefers; for this government to implement Malaysia and PNG and for a future government, should one ever be elected with the policy of processing asylum seekers on Nauru, to have the opportunity to do that. That is the question that the Leader of the Opposition will need to answer. I do not ask him to endorse the government's plan. I ask him to seriously consider, in the national interest, amending the legislation as he will need to do to support the plan he says he believes in.

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