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

The government did not pursue the Nauru option, as was previously the position under the conservative government, because it did not work. As an approach to dealing with the processing of people coming to this country by boat, the policy pursued by the previous government saw the overwhelming number of people sent to Nauru end up either in Australia or New Zealand. What we saw as a result of that policy was that there was no effective deterrent whatsoever in the approach that was taken by the previous government, because the people smugglers understood precisely what was going on. Under the previous government's decision to use Nauru, we saw some 1,900 people arriving by boat seeking asylum. Of those that were processed and found to be refugees, 95 per cent ended up being settled in Australia or New Zealand. In other words, Nauru had a 95 per cent failure rate in stopping the boats.

It was a similar story with the TPVs. Over 8,000 people were actually encouraged to jump on a rickety boat in the two years after they were introduced. That was not a deterrent. Many of those people were women and children, and ultimately 90 per cent of those that were granted TPVs— (Time expired)

Honourable senators interjecting—