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

The senator asked me two questions. I flatly denied the assertions she made in them and referred her to previous comments that both I and the Prime Minister had made. The second supplementary was based on the premise that I had agreed with her original propositions, which I have not and which are not true. So, Senator, this argument about fast-tracking people to the mainland when I have said we are not doing it is clearly a question based on a false premise. We are implementing Labor policy, which is the same policy that the previous government employed in terms of mandatory detention and offshore processing on Christmas Island. Those measures are in place. They will continue to be applied. I have made comments about contingency plans on a number of occasions, which the senator is well aware of. There is no fast-tracking being applied on the mainland, and it is just another Liberal scare campaign.