Trish Crossin (NT, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

My question is to Senator Vanstone, the Minister for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs. I refer the minister to the Senate committee report tabled yesterday into the provisions of the Migration Amendment (Designated Unauthorised Arrivals) Bill 2006. Does the minister accept the committee’s conclusions that the legislation would create ‘a new system of constructed potential indefinite detention’ and that it is ‘an inappropriate response to what is essentially a foreign policy issue’? In view of the committee’s scathing report, can the minister indicate whether the Prime Minister’s insistence this week that the bill is urgent and needs to be passed this sitting fortnight is to be reviewed? Will the government now change its plans in light of this bipartisan report that condemns the minister’s policy and recommends that the bill not proceed?