House debates
Monday, 13 February 2023
Questions without Notice
Temporary Protection Visas
2:01 pm
Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source
I make the point on temporary protection visas and those impacted by this decision of the government that we went to an election and made it clear before the election. We have informed governments, and the Leader of the Opposition would be aware because I informed him. The Indonesian defence and foreign ministers, for example, were here last week. We have made very clear what our intentions are.
We've put in place appropriate measures. Australia's Operation Sovereign Borders policy architecture remains unchanged. We've continued to operate on that basis. What we have done though is not left in limbo people who have been in Australia for a decade or more. This applies only to people from 2013 or before. In terms of those people, during the nine years in which those opposite were in office, not one of those people were sent back—not one—to Afghanistan or Iran. If they're arguing that they should be sent back and that if only they had got a fourth term they would have acted and sent them back, then they should stand up and argue that that's the case.
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