Concetta Fierravanti-Wells (NSW, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Immigration and Shadow Parliamentary Secretary Assisting the Leader in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

I would like to make a couple of quick comments in reply. I will not reiterate the points I made except to say—and I take the points that the minister made—that assistance is provided, as we know, to asylum seekers through the Asylum Seeker Assistance Scheme and, once the asylum seekers have received a decision from the Refugee Review Tribunal, they are no longer eligible for assistance.

The reality is that we now have, and we are increasingly seeing, people who see Australia as a place they want to come to and to stay in. I take the minister back to the reasons for the 45-day rule. The 45-day rule was introduced to deal with those claims that are put in by people who, as the minister says, legitimately come here with a visa but then decide to claim refugee status in Australia. The prolonged litigation, which I have personally seen over the years, really undermines public confidence in the system, and there is a legitimate question about it. I say to Senator Hanson-Young that there are some people in the community at the moment who not only are doing it tough and are unemployed but have a legitimate expectation that people who abuse the system will not be afforded additional rights. I say to the Senate that those people are entitled to have their views articulated in this place, not dismissed in some manner, as you, Senator Hanson-Young, have sought to do today.

I conclude my comments by saying that there are concerns. We will be looking to see that abuses of this system do not occur like they occurred in the past and that the dropping of this rule does not result in bogus claims. We will see, Minister, what the ultimate result of this is.

Question negatived.