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

That sounds very much like the question I got asked yesterday and the first question I got asked today. So I will again try to make it clear to those opposite what has occurred. There is no special deal with those asylum seekers. What we have done is rescue a boat at sea that was in distress. It was in the Indonesian search and rescue zone. We then took them, according to international law, to Indonesia and sought to disembark them there. They sought to have us bring them to Australia and we refused—we took them to Indonesia.

The Indonesian government negotiated with the Australian government a set of arrangements which would allow for the disembarkation of those persons. Those arrangements included that they would disembark in Indonesia, they would be taken into Indonesian detention and there would be arrangements made for their processing. Those processing arrangements were agreed between the Indonesian government and the Australian government. Once agreed, those arrangements were codified in a written document—which we have made public; which there is no secret about—that sets out the procedures for ensuring that those persons are treated properly. They meet the Indonesian needs in terms of handling them in an appropriate way with an appropriate level of efficiency and they meet Australia’s needs in terms of sending the message to them that they are disembarking in Indonesia and that they will be treated properly, in accordance with the UNHCR processes, in Indonesia—the same processes that apply for others. What we have done is agree with the Indonesian government a time frame for processing them. That is part of the arrangements for dealing with this very different case that involved a rescue at sea in the Indonesian search and rescue zone. (Time expired)