Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Health and Manager of Opposition Business in the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is addressed to the Prime Minister.

Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Abbott interjecting

Kelvin Thomson (Wills, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Public Accountability and Human Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Where are you going?

Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Health and Manager of Opposition Business in the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Bye-bye, Tony. Does the Prime Minister still have full confidence in the Minister for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs, Senator Amanda Vanstone?

John Howard (Bennelong, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Yes, I do. I thank the Deputy Leader of the Opposition for the question because it enables me to add, if I may, to my answer to the previous question on the same subject, which I was asked by the member for Swan. Because the member for Lalor has asked me a question about the minister and it relates obviously to her handling inter alia of the Ombudsman’s report, I wonder if she as well as the member for Swan have forgotten that, in 1992, the former government had so many unlawful detainees that they introduced retrospective legislation—namely, the Migration Amendment Bill 1992—limiting any compensation payable for unlawful detention to $1 a day. That was in 1992.

Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Health and Manager of Opposition Business in the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Ms Gillard interjecting

John Howard (Bennelong, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Hang on, it gets even better. The deputy has asked me the question and she is going to have to get the answer. They also moved legislation—maybe she has forgotten this—to legitimise what were unlawful detentions by changing the law retrospectively, where the member for Reid made clear that the purpose of the bill was to legitimise the detentions that occurred between 1989 and 1992, because the government at the time acted in good faith in detaining people. In fact, the former member for Prospect, Janice Crosio, who was then the Parliamentary Secretary for Social Security, had this pearl of wisdom to say—which is so apposite and so relevant to the criticism we are now receiving from the Labor Party:

In this instance, the Commonwealth acted on a mistaken view of what the law was ... Should that custody prove to have been unlawful, it is as a result of an innocent and technical breach, and no more.

In other words, when Labor was in government—

Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Health and Manager of Opposition Business in the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Ms Gillard interjecting

David Hawker (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The Deputy Leader of the Opposition has asked her question.

John Howard (Bennelong, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

any unlawful detention was an innocent and technical breach and no more; yet, when we are in government and something like that happens, it is the greatest assault on human rights since the Russian Revolution. It is absolutely outrageous.

Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

They liked the Russian Revolution.

John Howard (Bennelong, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I apologise to the Menchevists. They actually liked the Russian Revolution. But the hypocrisy. The member for Lalor ought to know better. She boasts about what a good immigration spokesman she was. On this issue, the Labor Party are a bunch of hypocrites.

Julie Owens (Parramatta, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Ms Owens interjecting

David Hawker (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Parramatta is warned!