George Brandis (Queensland, Liberal Party, Attorney-General) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, Senator Hanson-Young, and can I acknowledge the presence of so many Australian citizens who have come to parliament today and who have taken an interest in this important issue.

Can I say to them, through you, Mr President, in reply to Senator Hanson-Young that today there are 34 children in detention—34. During the period of the Labor government 8,000 children were held in detention at one time or another—a figure that peaked in July 2013 at 1,992 in that month. One thousand, nine hundred and ninety-two children were held in detention in July 2013 of the 8,000 who passed through the detention network during the period of the Labor government.

And you, Senator Hanson-Young, chastise this government for a policy failure. If you want to see a policy failure, I suggest, Senator Hanson-Young, that you consider the 8,000 children who were in detention during the six years of the Labor government; that you consider the more than 1,200 people—many of them children—who drowned as a result of that policy failure and compare that to the 34 children, many of them babies, who are in detention now. The story of this government is that the record number of children held in detention inherited from the previous Labor government has reduced and reduced and reduced to the point where today the case load has been almost reduced to nil.