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

Senator McKim—through you, Mr President—it is not a myth if it worked, and it did. It did: zero children in detention; no successful attempt to penetrate Australia's maritime borders for some 850 days; no deaths at sea, compared to the 1,200 or more that we know about during the period of the Labor government. And now, at last, we are dealing with the final legacy of the previous, Labor government—the offshore processing centres at Manus Island and Nauru.

Now, the Australian government has reached an agreement with the government of the United States of America, the details of which were announced by the Prime Minister and the Minister for Immigration and Border Protection last week. But I wonder when the day will eventually come that the fact that this problem has been comprehensively solved by this government— (Time expired)