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

and therefore I will give her the same answer. The answer is that there is no special deal. What there is is an arrangement between us and the Indonesian government, which was codified and presented to those on board, as to what would happen to those on board under those arrangements between the two governments for their processing. We rejected the demand of those on board the Oceanic Viking that they be taken to Australia. We rejected that. They sought to have themselves taken to Christmas Island. We rejected that.

There are only two special deals that I have heard of. One was proposed by the opposition spokesperson, Sharman Stone, who suggested that they ought to get special treatment and they ought to be processed on the boat. She was quoted as saying that there comes a point in time when you can very humanely bring the UN’s refugee agency, the UNHCR, on board. For heaven’s sake—let them assess on board whether the people are legitimate or not! So the only special deal proposed is that proposed by the opposition. We insisted that they come ashore before they were processed. The other special deal was that offered by the Liberal Premier of Western Australia, who suggested that they be brought straight to Australia. So the only ones calling for a special deal are in fact the opposition. We negotiated with the Indonesian government the arrangements that would apply when those on board disembarked in Indonesia. We insisted on them disembarking there. We are hopeful that they all will. Once they disembark there they will have the normal UNHCR assessment processes apply to them in the timeframes agreed between us and the Indonesian government.