Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

Some 29,416 Australians have had travel exemption decisions approved by Border Force. As I reminded him earlier and even since that day in September, some 43,800 Australians have returned—that is since September when there were some 26,200 who were registered at that time. So, we continue to bring Australians home. And those we have allowed and given exemption decisions to approve their travel have been for compassionate and compelling reasons; critical skills, medical; critical skills, other; the national interest, including diplomatic; urgent medical treatment; and transit approvals. We have been approving and supporting Australians moving out of this country and into this country as those needs have determined and those decisions have been independently made by the Border Force commissioner. If the Deputy Leader of the Opposition wants to pick an argument with the Border Force commissioner about how he is independently exercising those decisions and attack the integrity of the commissioner, he should get up and do it and not be doing it in the cowardly way he is doing it in this place.

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