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

The regional framework is about ensuring that we can process asylum claims in the region in a fair and balanced manner without people seeking to use people smugglers to move to destinations where they think they will get more favourable assessment, where they think they will get fair assessment of their claims. As a result of that perception amongst asylum seekers, we have seen large numbers of people seeking asylum in Australia who could have sought asylum elsewhere in the region without needing to employ people smugglers to move on. The reality is that many people have been granted asylum in Indonesia and have been resettled, both under the previous government and under this government, as well as having been resettled in other countries, but the perception that people need to get to Australia to seek asylum has fuelled a trade in people smuggling that we seek to address through a regional protection framework. I think that is the long-term solution to people movement in our region. It is something that is getting some international support, and as part of that the government has committed to establishing a regional processing centre that would allow us to deal with those people who have sought to move on and require to be processed at a centre. (Time expired)