Anthony Chisholm (Queensland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

The Turnbull government are in their fifth year of government, and have been completely and utterly incompetent at managing Australia's offshore processing centres. It is incumbent on the Turnbull government to ensure refugees have access to essential services, including security, health and welfare services.

Labor believes in strong borders, offshore processing, regional resettlement and, when it's safe to do so, boat turnbacks, because we know they saves lives at sea. Manus Island and Nauru were set up as temporary processing facilities but have become places of indefinite detention because of the inaction of the Turnbull government. Labor wants eligible refugees off Manus Island and Nauru and resettled in third countries as soon as possible. We strongly support the US refugee resettlement agreement, which will see up to 1,250 refugees given the opportunity to resettle in America. One-hundred and thirty-five refugees from both Manus and Nauru have already had that opportunity. The US refugee resettlement agreement won't pick up all eligible refugees, and for that reason the Turnbull government must immediately secure other third-country settlement as a priority.