Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Immigration, Integration and Citizenship) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, I wish to make a personal explanation.

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

Does the honourable member claim to have been misrepresented?

Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Immigration, Integration and Citizenship) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Yes.

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

Please proceed.

Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Immigration, Integration and Citizenship) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Yesterday in question time the Minister for Immigration and Citizenship alleged to be quoting a Sky News interview. He accurately represented the question and said:

The reply from Mr Burke was:

I just don’t believe this is part of the equation. I just don’t believe that Nauru is part of the equation.

I went and got a copy of the transcript. The first sentence of that reply appears halfway through the answer. The second sentence does not appear at all. My reply to that question was:

I’ve got to tell you I don’t believe for one minute that the refugee camps around the world are getting news about the latest practice of how we have treated the eighty three asylum seekers from Sri Lanka. I just don’t believe that is part of the equation.

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

The member does not need to read the whole transcript. The member will come straight to where he has been misrepresented.

Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Immigration, Integration and Citizenship) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The minister said what my reply was. That was my reply. The answer then went on to refer—

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

The member does not have to read his reply.

Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Immigration, Integration and Citizenship) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The answer referred to two further points: firstly, the extraordinary waste of money in funding a centre at Christmas Island that we then do not use; and, secondly, the fact that last time we were told people from Nauru would never come to Australia more than 1,000 of them were either living in Australia or in New Zealand with the right to enter Australia.