Amanda Vanstone (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

No. The specific aspect of the question is: did I understand that Mr Howard had said he was a patient man and not hostage to other agendas? Yes, that is right. Did I say there was no particular time frame? Yes, that is right as well. The question then asked was: why did we immediately respond? It is because we are elected as the government. When 43 people arrived unauthorised on our shores, we dealt with them appropriately according to our limitations and responsibilities under the UN convention. We then went on and said, because of our national interest in border protection and because of Australia’s national interest in good, strong and effective relationships with Indonesia, what are we now going to do? Are we going to sit here and allow this to happen again and again? No.