Michaelia Cash (WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Immigration) Share this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister representing the Prime Minister, Senator Conroy. I refer to the government's key immigration detention values, specifically No. 3, which states:

Children, including juvenile foreign fishers and, where possible, their families, will not be detained in an immigration detention centre (IDC).

Given that more than 1,600 children are currently held in formal detention having arrived illegally by boat, which is a record number under any government, will the minister now concede that there are more children in formal detention than in October 2010, when the previous minister for immigration announced that the majority of children would be removed from formal detention?