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

On World Refugee Day, we were conferring citizenship on a number of people who had come here under our humanitarian and refugee program. Many Australians do not realise, because the Labor Party does not want them to know, that Australia is very generous to refugees. We have a 13,000 intake of refugee and humanitarian entrants each year, and we have been doing it for so long that it is regarded as commonplace. For the last few years most of our intake has been from Africa—and some senators have some issues concerning settlement problems that some communities have had. But we have been doing it long enough for a lot of refugees from Africa to have taken out citizenship yesterday.

On World Refugee Day yesterday the theme was hope. These people display all of it. They have had it all along—courage, determination and hope to find a better place. They have come to a country that opens its doors to those who are most in need, works with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and says, ‘You’re the most in need, come in.’ And not just come in, but we say, ‘We’ve got resettlement programs for you and we’ll help you, and within a couple of years you can be an Australian citizen and your kids can grow up to have all the opportunities that that brings.’

The other part of your question was: do I know what is happening with the bill? Yes, I do. I do know what is happening with the bill. Furthermore, I know when you are going to know, but it is not my place to tell you.