Michaelia Cash (WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Immigration) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs, upon notice, on 25 September 2012:

(1) Is the Minister aware that the former Maltese Minister for Immigration, Mr Alexander Cachia Zammit, in an article in the Times of Malta dated 21 January 2010, claimed that during his 1963 visit to Perth he did not meet with the Director of the Christian Brothers due to police investigations.

(2) Is the Minister aware that the former Minister stated that the Australian Government advised the Maltese Government of suspicions, causing the Maltese Government to cease sending Maltese children to Australia under the Immigration (Guardianship of Children) Act 1946.

(3) Can any documents relating to the 1963 police investigation of Christian Brothers institutions in Western Australia in relation to child migrants be provided; if not, why not.

(4) Can any advice given to the Government of Malta, which may have caused that Government to cease sending children to Australia under the Immigration (Guardianship of Children) Act 1946, be provided; if not, why not.

Bob Carr (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The answer to the honourable senator's question is as follows:

(1) No

(2) No

(3) No. The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade no longer holds any records from the 1960s. Questions relating to access to Commonwealth records under the Archives Act 1983 should be directed to the National Archives of Australia.

(4) No. The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade no longer holds any records from the 1960s. Questions relating to access to Commonwealth records under the Archives Act 1983 should be directed to the National Archives of Australia.