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

I thank Senator Nettle for the question. By way of clarification, if the day mentioned by Senator Nettle was in fact the day relating to a particular bill, it was not a bill to send all asylum seekers to Nauru; it was a bill to send all unauthorised boat arrivals, whether they are seeking asylum or otherwise, to Nauru. That is just a point worth mentioning because so many people seek to treat unauthorised boat arrivals and asylum seekers as being one and the same, and they need not be. As to the Burmese record in relation to human rights, there are clearly questions around that—questions that are shared by the international community. Senator Nettle may not be aware that we expect in this financial year to take I think 1½ times as many as we took last time from Burma. The number we are looking at is about 1,500 this year and it was about 900 last year—mainly Korean people from refugee camps in Thailand.

The senator then goes on, in posing her question, to say it is highly unlikely that a third country could be found to take these people. There are two things that I want to say about this, but let me finish that point. I am not sure that the senator’s lack of confidence is well placed, but the government policy is that if you are an unauthorised boat arrival you will be processed offshore. I do intend that these people will go to Nauru, but the senator should not assume from that answer that work is not already under way in relation to what would happen after that. There are some other things that, believe me, Senator, I would like to share with you now, but I do not think that is going to assist their case at all. I will say this much: it is also true that, if there are a number of people waiting for assessment who might all be declared refugees, it is perhaps a quintessential case of someone jumping the queue. We will always adopt a policy of strong border protection, whereby we will take people who have been assessed by the UN as being refugees out of refugee camps. We will give them our priority, not those who choose an alternative path.