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

I thank the member for Melbourne for his question. He is going to an aspect of the Houston panel's work which I know lots of people find very, very challenging. It has been the subject of discussion between members of the government who are finding it challenging. It is a challenging recommendation. Angus Houston and his team are asking us to take some advice, including from UNHCR, to work out what kind of time people would have waited to be processed and get resettlement opportunities if they had not moved—if they had not paid a people smuggler, if they had not got on a boat—and to use that time so that people in Nauru and PNG do not get a resettlement opportunity before that time has expired. That is a challenging recommendation, but I think people can see the policy merits of it, as pointed out by the panel, which are to ensure that people do not get an advantage from having risked their lives at sea, with so many people of course losing their lives at sea, or from having paid a people smuggler.

To the member for Melbourne: we in the government are of course going to work this through to ascertain what the appropriate time is. In doing that, we will be guided by the advice of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. We cannot today, having received this report at 7 am yesterday, give the member for Melbourne or anybody else in the parliament a concluded view about that. We will need to work with UNHCR, as recommended by the panel, to work out those times that people are likely to be on Manus Island or on Nauru. I know the member for Melbourne is likely to have a very different view from me, but I would say to him that when we are seeing so many people lose their lives at sea we have got an obligation to act. Some of that action does challenge people, but I believe the panel has charted a comprehensive way forward, and that is why the government has provided in-principle support to each recommendation, including that one.

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