Annette Hurley (SA, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs. Can the minister confirm that the Ombudsman highlighted in a report yesterday the case of a person who was wrongly detained between March 2001 and September 2005 because the minister’s department failed to approach the Afghan government to confirm his identity until June 2005? Doesn’t the Ombudsman note that on the basis of medical evidence Mr X has suffered a ‘major depressive illness solely due to his lengthy detention’ and is now receiving psychiatric treatment? Didn’t the Ombudsman go on to recommend that Mr X be granted a permanent resident visa? Can the minister explain why her department took over four years to simply ask the Afghan government to confirm his identity? Can the Minister also advise whether Mr X, identified in report 101, will be granted a permanent visa?

Amanda Vanstone (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator, for a moment I thought you might be talking about an Ombudsman’s report in relation to someone in detention this morning, but the dates in fact do not concur with that; you are talking about another case. It is in a batch of cases of Ombudsman’s reports that were tabled yesterday. I will take the opportunity to match the number you have given me with the details of that case and come back to you with an answer on that.

Annette Hurley (SA, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask a supplementary question. I am surprised that the minister is not aware of this particular case. When the minister is coming back, could she also confirm that the cause of Mr X’s mental illness can be clearly attributed to his detention in the department, whether the department will consider what ongoing role they should have in providing him with medical assistance, whether the government are now responsible for his ongoing medical treatment because they bungled the processing of this individual’s claims and whether the assistance recommended by the Ombudsman will actually be provided?

Amanda Vanstone (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I can add something that might be of relevance to the senator in relation to this. In relation to the Ombudsman’s suggestion that the department has a responsibility in terms of people who are no longer in detention, the department does accept that we have some responsibility. We do not simply put people outside the gate and leave it at that. We are in the process of arranging and, in some cases, have arranged with various non-government bodies and some state health arrangements for people to be put in touch with the appropriate assistance.

Often people who come to us in detention—that is not the case, I think, with the person you are talking about—already have a mental health problem. They have not been able to identify where they ought to go for health, probably because of their mental health issues, and we take that seriously; we are doing that. We are also screening people for mental health problems on the way into detention because, while there is a debate about the degree to which detention or, more particularly, the doubt about one’s visa status, can cause trouble, there is no doubt that some people come—(Time expired)