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

I thank Senator Reynolds for her question and her keen interest in this important matter.

Compared with September 2013, when the coalition took office, there are now 50 per cent fewer children in detention across the detention network and 75 per cent fewer children in detention on Christmas Island. Delivering these results is something that those on the other side could not do, because it requires strong will and a resolve to take on the people smugglers and stop the boats. This is something that those on the other side have yet to grasp: if you stop the boats, you stop the number of children in detention. Offshore processing, turning back the boats where it is safe and appropriate to do so and working with our regional neighbours to end the scourge of people smuggling have all contributed to this government's policy success.

But we know from statements by the Leader of the Opposition that if those opposite were returned to power they would return to the chaos and tragedy of old, which ultimately would see an increase in the number of children in detention. At the height of Labor's policy failure, July 2013, there were 10,201 people in held detention, including 1,992 children. Our policy successes in getting children out of detention have meant that we have been able to close a number of detention centres, and in particular the family detention facilities in Darwin, Curtin in WA, South Australia and Christmas Island. All those facilities were opened under the former Labor government because of their failed policies. The irony of the position of those opposite, supported by the Greens, is that it was their policies that put children into detention and it is ours that are getting them out.