Malcolm Turnbull (Wentworth, Liberal Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Noting that the practice of detaining women and children asylum seekers in detention centres in Australia was begun by the Keating government in 1992 and was completely ended by the Howard government in 2005, and noting the Prime Minister’s savage condemnation of this past practice, will he guarantee that no women or children from the Oceanic Viking will be detained in the Indonesian detention centres behind bars and razor wire?

Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The great thing about the Liberal Party is that they attack you from the right, they attack you from the left, they attack you from the front, they attack you from behind, but they never attack you consistently. It being Wednesday, it must be censure day, so we will be building up to a censure fairly soon. I say to the Leader of the Opposition that when it comes to the proper treatment of women and children he is right to point out the fact that our view, consistent with our immigration detention values, is that children are not under any circumstances to be held in an immigration detention centre in this country.

Opposition Members:

Opposition members—In this country!

Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am about to go on to the question of Indonesia. The Indonesian authorities have advised the government that women and children will be offered the option of staying in a house near the Tanjung Pinang detention facility. One of the reasons why that is the case is because we, together with the previous government, have been providing funding through the UNHCR and through the IOM to the Indonesian government to provide them with the capacity to construct appropriate facilities and to provide appropriate medical services as well to such individuals under these circumstances. That is the approach of the Australian government at home. That is what we are seeking to engage the Indonesians with abroad.

Malcolm Turnbull (Wentworth, Liberal Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Good.

Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I say to the honourable gentleman opposite, as he continues to prosecute this attack—

Ms Julie Bishop (Curtin, Liberal Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Ms Julie Bishop interjecting

Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Deputy Leader of the Opposition intervenes as if there is some consistency in the attack being mounted by those opposite. Once again, when you look at the Deputy Leader of the Opposition, back in the Subiaco Post it is all ‘gentle Julia’; she is all for a gentle solution. But when she is running a different line it is quite the reverse. We have the small-l liberal in Wentworth, the member for Wentworth, the Leader of the Opposition, adopting a policy locally which is to the left on this issue but then adopting a posture sometimes to the left, sometimes to the right, depending on the circumstances not in the national debate but within the Liberal Party. Our policy is clear and we stand by it.