Kate Lundy (ACT, Australian Labor Party, Minister Assisting for Industry and Innovation) Share this | Hansard source

The government is determined to implement the expert panel's recommendations to stop the flow of boats and prevent the loss of life on dangerous boat journeys. There will be no advantage for people risking their lives on people-smuggling boats. We have to let these policies be implemented and allow them to start to work, so I think it is a bit rich to begin passing judgement on a set of policies, as is implied in the question, when they are in the process of being implemented.

I think it is important that everyone acknowledge that we allow the first transfers to get away to Nauru and start to see the policy at work. The message that will send is that there will be no advantage for people arriving by boat. The government expects to begin transferring IMAs to Nauru later this week and expects to have 500 asylum seekers on Nauru by the end of September. We are currently finalising arrangements for regional processing on Nauru, with the negotiations around provision of services at the offshore processing facilities ongoing, and I know the minister will announce further details in due course.

As the minister has already said, Nauru will shortly be ready to receive asylum seekers, with up to 500 places available by the end of September, subject to the designation of Nauru as a regional processing centre, which is currently the subject of debate within the Senate. Finally, as Senator Hanson-Young knows, we have increased our humanitarian program to 20,000, which is the single largest increase in our humanitarian intake for some 30 years.