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

Just for the record, Senator, you are not able to ascertain and you cannot possibly assert here that the remarks you have just made are in fact a correct reflection of what did or did not happen on Nauru. All the senator is saying is that that is what someone who was rejected has asserted. I have no doubt that some people who have been rejected will get together and make particular claims. It is true that there is a point at which voluntary return packages cut off. People would have been told: ‘This offer is open up until this date. If you don’t take it then, you don’t have a chance of getting it.’

As to the suggestion that people were told they would be forcibly removed, there has not been a forcible removal from Nauru. It is not the Australian government’s country; it is Nauru. There has not been one. You will not be able to show there has been one. If we were likely to ever have a forcible removal, why didn’t we do it with the remainder that were there? Has that ever occurred to you, Senator Nettle? (Time expired)