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

My question is to the Minister for Foreign Affairs. How has the government's handling of asylum seekers and border protection improved since 24 June last year?

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

I thank the Deputy Leader of the Opposition for the question. The answer is very straightforward and it goes to the Bali process. The Bali process is the first regional agreement—out of 13 regions across the world—which demonstrates that you can achieve an outcome in partnership with countries in your region. The Deputy High Commiss­ioner for Refugees told both the Minister for Immigration and Citizenship and me, when we met on this in Bali a couple of months ago, that all regions of the world are striving towards a comparable agreement. The Deputy Leader of the Opposition asked what achievements have been registered. Firstly, through the process of that Bali framework agreement, we have, for the first time, the support of the international agencies—that is, the UNHCR and the International Organisation for Migration. Secondly, we have within the agreement, also explicitly for the first time, the embrace of the possibility of regional assessment centres. Thirdly, we have the buy-in of more than 30 regional states, if they exercise this option, to cooperate with one another to make it work. In the previous several years of the operation of the Bali process, which was initiated by Alexander Downer as Minister for Foreign Affairs, no such regional framework agreement was ever achieved. That is the advance and we are proud of it.