Kim Carr (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research) Share this | Hansard source

The government is of the view that this legislation is appropriate and it is appropriate that the minister be required to have regard to whether a country has given Australia assurances on two key protection issues—that is, firstly, the nonrefoulement, that no genuine refugee will be returned to a country they have fled; and, secondly, that there will be access to a refugee assessment process. In essence, the government's position is to entrench in law arrangements whereby we consider whether a country will provide the protection under the key tenets of the refugee convention. The government is determined to pursue these questions and, to answer Senator Hanson-Young's question directly, we have no intention of resiling from that position.