Adam Bandt (Melbourne, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister.

Mark Dreyfus (Isaacs, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Attorney General) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Madame Speaker, I rise on a point of order. This minister should withdraw the unparliamentary language that he has just used.

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member will resume his seat. To use the term to call one person a hypocrite is one thing, to use it as a generic term is different. If you pay attention to the House of Representatives Practice, you will see the difference.

Opposition members: They are all hypocrites!

The honourable Leader of the Opposition will not be disorderly or he will leave the chamber under 94(a).

Adam Bandt (Melbourne, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

When the Greens first raised issues of rape and child abuse in the Nauruan detention facility, the immigration minister said staff from Save the Children were coaching detainees to make these stories up. Given that the Moss report finds compelling evidence of rape and abuse, but no evidence of wrongdoing by Save the Children staff, when will you apologise to Save the Children's workers and, crucially, how much longer will you leave the 107 children currently in Nauru locked up and exposed to abuse?

Government members interjecting—

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

There will be silence on my right!

Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Let me be absolutely clear at the outset.

Honourable Members:

Honourable members interjecting—

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Prime Minister has the call. There will be silence for the answer.

Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is appalling and reprehensible that misconduct of a grievous type seems to have taken place at this centre. It is absolutely appalling that this has happened and we are working with the government of Nauru, which runs the centre, to try to ensure that this kind of thing is appropriately dealt with, that it is punished and that it never happens again. That is what we are doing. That is why, as the minister for immigration and border protection made crystal clear on Friday, we have accepted all 19 recommendations of the Moss review.

Let me deal with the issue of children in detention. No-one wants to see children in detention. There were children in detention under the former Howard government, but because the Howard government stopped the boats, the children left detention. There were no children in immigration detention when the Howard government left office.

Melissa Parke (Fremantle, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Health) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise on a point of order. On a point of relevance, the substance of the question is about when the government will apologise to Save the Children.

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

There is no point of order. The member will resume her seat. The Prime Minister has the call.

Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Under the former government, under members opposite—

Ms Ryan interjecting—

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Lalor will desist.

Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

there were at its peak almost 2,000 children in immigration detention. Almost 2,000 children who had arrived illegally by boat were in immigration detention. When this government took office there were 1,400 children in immigration detention. There are less than 200 now. And the reason why the children are leaving detention is because the boats have stopped.

It would be a lot easier to take this question from the Greens member of this House more seriously if he and his colleagues in the Senate and elsewhere had been readier to give credit where it is due. This government has stopped the boats. In stopping the boats, we have stopped the deaths at sea. In stopping the boats, we have allowed the children to leave detention. That is as it should be. Not only have we been able to stop the deaths and stop the children staying in detention but we have been able to run—to restart, in effect—a decent humanitarian program, because those coming to Australia are now being chosen by us and not by the people smugglers. That is the achievement of this government.