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

Senator McKim, I am very proud of the fact that there are no children in detention in Australia today. When the government of which I am a member came into office, there were 2,000—in fact 1,992. That was at the end of the period of Labor government which had seen 8,000 children in detention. As a result of the policies of this government and the work of two ministers, Mr Morrison and Mr Dutton, there are now no children in detention. We have closed 17 detention centres in Australia because there is nothing for them to do. They are surplus to requirements, they are surplus to capacity, because we have solved the problem.