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

I see that, while the House of Representatives have followed Mr Turnbull's advice, the opposition in the Senate have decided to ignore it and continue with their negative use of question time. Can I say also that I got a much tougher question on Q&A than that and the senator would have been better off repeating that one, but Senator Fierravanti-Wells and I had a very secondary role in the debate. I can say that I do remain proud of the change in culture that we brought to the treatment of asylum seekers in this country. I might point out that unfortunately the Liberal Party seems to be returning to the culture which seeks to dehumanise and take away the rights of asylum seekers to have their cases heard.

It is the case that in ending the Pacific solution we continue a policy that started under the Howard regime, interestingly enough, when the Howard regime actually decided not to allow the detaining of children behind barbed wire. As I pointed out the other night, at the time we closed Nauru that was exactly the same time as we opened Christmas Island. Who built the Christmas Island facility? The Howard government. Who spent $600 million on building the Christmas Island facility? Am I to believe the Liberal Party's position is that they did not build it for it to be used as a replacement for Nauru? That certainly was not what was said at the time. People may seek to take political advantage— (Time expired)