Murray Watt (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Hansard source

The first point, Senator Hanson, is I'm not sure it's correct—in fact, because of the unusual circumstances here, where we had a High Court decision that effectively required these people to be released from detention, there was no application process. They didn't apply for visas in the way that people normally would. We had a High Court judgement which said that it was not legal to detain the plaintiff and a number of other people. We were required by that High Court decision to release them from detention, and visas were then arranged by the department—the minister granted each of those people a visa within hours of their release, without a formal application process in the way that would normally happen. I recognise that's an unusual situation, but that is as a result of the High Court decision.