Chris Evans (WA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Government in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the senator for his question. I understand his shadow minister in the House of Representatives asked a question about the education revolution, so obviously she is not terribly interested in immigration issues, but I appreciate Senator Scullion’s interest. Can I say, Senator Scullion, that thanks to the Howard government we have quite a lot of capacity on Christmas Island. The Howard government built, at the great expense of $400 million, a new high-security facility with an extra 800 beds. This was in addition to the facilities that were already on Christmas Island. Currently, we have a capacity on the island of 1,100 to 1,200—it depends on the configuration of groups et cetera. As I understand it, as at 15 September there were about 650 people being detained on Christmas Island under our mandatory detention policy. So there is capacity available for responding to any other arrivals.

But the senator raises a perfectly valid point, which is that one could find oneself, as the Howard government did when it had 12,000 arrivals in just over a three-year period, having difficulty finding accommodation. As I have indicated publicly on a number of occasions, we have contingency plans in place to provide some extra facility on Christmas Island and capability, as the senator knows, at the Darwin Northern Immigration Detention Centre. I think the capacity of that is 400 or so. So there are plans in place for the contingency of having to respond to further arrivals in large numbers. As any government should, we have put proper planning procedures in place.