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

I thank the member for his question. Obviously the refugee obligations are important to us. They are important to this country. When we deal with countries that not only are signatory to the convention but are implementing the convention, we can be sure that convention obligations are being abided by. Through the remarkable negotiating strategy of the Minister for Immigration and Citizenship, we are now in a position to say refugee convention obligations—most important of all, the obligation of non-refoulement, of making sure that people are not returned to a place of persecution—can be achieved in Malaysia. In addition to that we can see in Malaysia the processing of claims and we can see people's humanitarian needs dealt with. The member, I accept, is genuinely interested in this. I accept that genuine interest. I say to him and to the Leader of the Opposition, and anyone else opposite, that if they are concerned about these questions I recommend that they ring the United Nations High Commission for Refugees, ask them their attitude to the Malaysia arrangement and ask them their attitude to Nauru. I think if those opposite bothered to make that call what they would find is that the UNHCR is prepared to be involved in implementing the arrangement with Malaysia, whereas the UNHCR is not prepared to be involved, in any way, in—indeed it is quite condemning of—an arrangement with Nauru. For those who are concerned—I accept that there are many genuinely concerned about our obligations under the refugee convention—I suggest they ring the United Nations agency charged with making that convention live and breathe and ask them about the alternative propositions here: Malaysia versus Nauru.

But let me come back to what I have said at other points in question time and what I said consistently last week, which is that at the end of the day this is not a debate between two contending policy propositions; this is a debate about whether or not executive government should have the power it needs to make the arrangements it believes fit.

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