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

My question is again to the Prime Minister. I refer the Prime Minister to his new fast-track access policy for asylum seekers. Given the Prime Minister says these Oceanic Viking arrangements are standard or, in his own special language, non-extraordinary, implying that all asylum seekers in Indonesia will now be resettled within four to 12 weeks, receive daily assistance with their claims from Australian officials and receive access to housing assistance, medical care, income support and help to find a job, has the Prime Minister sought advice on how many extra boat arrivals will result from this very public weakening of Australia’s border protection policies?

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

This comes from a party opposite which presided over nearly 250 boats arriving in Australia with nearly 15,000 people, and in the period that this government has been in office—about two years now—some 2,100 people have come to this country. And of course in all those circumstances what happens is a product of international security circumstances, most recently the war in Sri Lanka. What is remarkable about, shall I say, ‘special deals’ is the arrangements which those opposite had when it came to the Pacific solution. The hairy-chested statements: ‘All to the Pacific solution; not to come to Australia,’ and 60 per cent of those sent to the Pacific solution by the member for Berowra became permanent residents of Australia. Or, shall I say, the hairy-chestedness of: ‘We’re going to bring in temporary protection visas to show that we’re really tough,’ only for 90 per cent of those 10,000 people who were granted temporary protection visas to end up as permanent residents of Australia.

What we have here is a fundamental gap between what they say, what they have done, and what they would do. Our policy is absolutely clear-cut. What we have said from the beginning is that these individuals on these vessels will not be processed in Australia. They will be processed in Indonesia, despite their demands. We have rejected those demands, and processed in Indonesia they will be.