Kerry Nettle (NSW, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs, Senator Vanstone, and it relates to the eight Burmese asylum seekers who are currently on Christmas Island. The minister announced, I think on the day that the legislation to send all asylum seekers to Nauru was withdrawn, that she wanted to send them to Nauru. Will the minister be exercising her ministerial public interest power to ensure that these asylum seekers’ claims are assessed in Australia rather than them being taken to Nauru? Given Burma’s appalling human rights record, the strong likelihood that these Burmese asylum seekers may be found to be genuine refugees, the fact that they have Australian based lawyers, the history of psychological damage experienced by detainees on Nauru and that it is highly unlikely that any third country resettlement could be found, how can the minister argue that it is in the public interest to send these asylum seekers to Nauru?