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

I thought better of Senator Back than that he would take the low road. We have heard Senator Johnston talk about the threat of disease, we have heard Mr Tuckey talk about terrorist threats and today we have had the shadow spokesperson making claims about increases in Centrelink benefits—all untrue and all unfounded. I can assure senators that we have mandatory detention of offshore arrivals and we have processing on Christmas Island. These are exactly the same arrangements that were in place under the Howard government. As part of that processing, there are health, identity and security checks undertaken by Australian security agencies. They are rigorous and they are the same checks that have been applied for many years in Australia. They are all conducted on Christmas Island, and no-one is released onto the mainland with a visa without having had those checks successfully completed. (Time expired)