Paul Scarr (Queensland, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Multicultural Engagement) Share this | Hansard source

I note that the minister is almost referring to the Senator as some sort of autonomous body independent of government. The fact is that the government actually introduced the legislation, supported by the Greens, to abolish the Immigration Assessment Authority, and it was because the government had the numbers in the Senate that the Immigration Assessment Authority was abolished. This wasn't some passive act of the Senate. This was an act of the Albanese Labor government to introduce legislation into this place to actually abolish the Immigration Assessment Authority.

For the benefit of the Senate I refer to the fact that the current median time to finalise a protection matter in the ART is 233 weeks, more than four years. It now takes more than four years to finalise a protection matter in the ART. What was the median time, Minister, to finalise a protection matter in the IAA's jurisdiction before it was abolished? What was the median time at the end of the 2023-24 financial year?