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

Thank you very much. The answer to the member's question is: I have been advised, and I am relying on that advice, that Nauru will not work and will cost a billion dollars. The people who live in the member's electorate may want to pay more tax to fund a failed solution that the Leader of the Opposition has been directly advised will not work. The member might want to go to families in his community and say, 'Do you mind paying a billion dollars more tax so the Leader of the Opposition can put into place a processing centre on Nauru that he has been told will not work?' You may want to do that, but can I suggest to you that the better course would be to go to the Leader of the Opposition and say, 'There are national interest questions here. There is something beyond politics that matters here. The Australian community is looking to this place and saying, "Find common ground; sort it out; move on; get this issue resolved for the nation."' The Australian people are looking at this place and saying they do not, in this important area, want to see politics as usual, which is why we have been driven by the national interest every step of the way.

We have facilitated the Leader of the Opposition and his team getting full access to information when they sought it—full access to a briefing from departmental officials and full access to a briefing from legal experts and representatives like the Solicitor-General. The Leader of the Opposition may not be being frank with the members of his backbench about what happened in those briefings, but the Leader of the Opposition was told that the Malaysia arrangement has the best deterrent value, that that is the best policy option available now, that that is the policy option that should be pursued, and that the appropriate thing is to amend the legislation to enable this government—indeed any executive government—to put in place the policies that it believes in. The Leader of the Opposition probably has not told you about that paragraph of the Solicitor-General's advice which talks about his doubts and the need to legislate for Nauru. This furphy being used by the opposition today that Nauru could be reopened tomorrow stands in the face of the Solicitor-General's advice, stands in the face of the legal advice the government has, stands in the face of the practicalities of opening a centre in Nauru, stands in the face of the costs and stands in the face of the expert advice that it will not work. I reiterate that I do not ask members opposite to endorse the Malaysia arrangement.

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