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

First of all, these people are not being dealt with under any new legislation. The new legislation has not passed. Thank you for the opportunity to remind the Senate that these people are being dealt with under existing legislation—it is not new legislation—because they arrived at an excised offshore place. We already have offshore processing. It has been the most successful border protection policy that we have had and it is important. What we are seeking to do in the bill that is now in the other place is simply apply that existing policy to those few people who manage to make it from an excised offshore island onto the mainland. I do not have advice as to any refusal of the Red Cross by the department. I have been told that they have declined some visitors, but it has not been indicated to me that they were from the Red Cross, and it is certainly not indicated to me in my brief that the department has declined a visit by the Red Cross. I will investigate that matter and get back to you on that issue.