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

I thank Senator Kirk for the question. Senator Kirk obviously can read the Ombudsman’s report into Mr G. She is correct, I think, in what she cites. There certainly were some most unsatisfactory responses and communications. It was not just the communications that were unsatisfactory but the sentiment behind them was unsatisfactory. There is absolutely no doubt about that. The Ombudsman, rightly, says that Mr G may well be entitled to compensation. The Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs has been in contact over the last couple of months, I am advised, with Mr G.’s representatives—I think he might have the equivalent of a public advocate acting on his behalf at this point—with respect to compensation.

I made the point yesterday, through you, Mr President, to the senator, that the exercise in Immigration at the moment is one that has not been seen, to my knowledge, by any Australian government that has so openly said: ‘Some serious problems have been recognised. Not only will we try to fix these serious problems, but we will lift up the rug and go back to see whether anyone else, technically or otherwise, was detained unlawfully for a short or long period of time and we will deal with it.’ And that is what we have been doing. In the time that I have been in parliament or in the time that I have been interested in politics, I have not seen such an open dealing with an issue. Yesterday something called the ‘dollar a day’ legislation came to mind. I know some of you will not be familiar with it, but people who were in cabinet at the time will be familiar with it. There was a time when the previous Labor government improperly detained a bunch of, I think, Cambodian refugees—sorry, asylum seekers; they may not have been refugees—and the response from Labor, in government, to discovering that it had improperly detained some people was to pass legislation legitimising the detention. That is what you did. When you got caught out, you passed some laws that said it was okay. But there is a lot more to say on this, Senator Kirk. I have had just about enough.