Richard Colbeck (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Minister for Aged Care and Senior Australians) Share this | Hansard source

By supporting this Greens led motion today, Labor is proving once again why it cannot be trusted to protect the integrity of our humanitarian and border protection programs. The effect of this disallowance is that a person who arrived in Australia as an illegal maritime arrival, an IMA, before 13 August 2012, or as an unauthorised air arrival, a UAA, who lodges an application for a subsequent subclass 785 temporary protection visa, a TPV, or a subclass 790 safe haven enterprise visa, will not have their claims for protection assessed through the fast-track assessment process. This will result in the assessment of their application blowing out from 23 days on average to 504 days. By supporting the disallowance motion, 4,000 illegal maritime arrivals will not be considered fast-track applicants, delaying the time it will take to finalise their protection claims and increasing the cost to the Australian taxpayer.