Michaelia Cash (WA, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Immigration and Border Protection) Share this | Hansard source

The government will not be supporting this motion. The UNHCR report sought to criticise both Papua New Guinea and Nauru. The coalition believe that those criticisms were misdirected. The coalition commend the work of the government of PNG and Nauru in establishing offshore processing frameworks and we will continue to work cooperatively with those governments with respect to all aspects of offshore processing.

What PNG and Nauru inherited from the former Labor government was a bungled reimplementation of a policy that was undercapacity and underfunded. Significant increases in funding and capacity have been undertaken by the coalition government.

The UNHCR has a long history of being opposed to offshore processing. The coalition disagrees with that position. Offshore processing acts as a deterrent. It prevents people from getting on boats and risking their lives at sea. Over the last 12 weeks the coalition has been identifying and addressing infrastructure needs on Nauru and Manus Island. This process is ongoing.