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

My question is to the Minister representing the Prime Minister, Senator Conroy. I refer to the government's key immigration detention values, specifically No. 3, which states:

Children, including juvenile foreign fishers and, where possible, their families, will not be detained in an immigration detention centre (IDC).

Given that more than 1,600 children are currently held in formal detention having arrived illegally by boat, which is a record number under any government, will the minister now concede that there are more children in formal detention than in October 2010, when the previous minister for immigration announced that the majority of children would be removed from formal detention?

Stephen Conroy (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Gillard government is the only party in this chamber committed to stopping people drowning at sea at the hands of people smugglers. It is the only party in this chamber committed to that—with apologies to the Greens. We asked three experts—Angus Houston, Paris Aristotle and Michael L'Estrange—to come back to us with a plan. The Houston report contains 22 recommendations, a suite of measures which the experts believe, once implemented as a whole, will drive down the number of people risking their life at sea.

George Brandis (Queensland, Liberal Party, Shadow Attorney-General) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I rise on a point of order on the issue of direct relevance. The question pointed out that there were 1,600 children in detention under Senator Conroy's government, when there had been no children in detention under the previous Howard government. He was asked to concede whether the policy had failed. You should direct him to the question.

Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Finance and Deregulation) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, on the point of order: the question went wider than that, and, on the allegation of policy failure, the minister is entitled, quite relevantly, to respond.

John Hogg (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

There is no point of order at this stage. I am listening closely to your answers, Senator Conroy. You have one minute and 16 seconds remaining.

Stephen Conroy (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

As I said, there were 22 recommendations, a suite of measures which the experts believe, once implemented as a whole, will drive down the number of people risking their life at sea and reduce the number of boat arrivals. If we exclude families from certain measures such as transfers to Manus or Nauru, we will be encouraging parents to put their children on boats to avoid the no-advantage rule. We are committed to doing everything the experts recommended to discourage people from making a dangerous—

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

Mr President, I too rise on a point of order in relation to direct relevance. My question was actually quite narrow in its focus, the question being: will the minister now concede that there are more children in formal detention, being the number of 1,600, than in 2010, when the previous minister announced that all children would be removed from formal detention? I too ask that you direct the minister to the question.

John Hogg (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I believe the minister is answering the question. The minister still has 42 seconds remaining to answer the question.

Stephen Conroy (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Australian government is committed to ensuring that children are accommodated in the community where appropriate. There will always be a period of time immediately after arrival when children and their parents and carers will be placed in APODs while initial identity, health and character checks are undertaken. These checks include assessing whether or not it is reasonably practicable to take an offshore entry person to Manus or Nauru. The average period that families with children are in held detention is around 120 days. There are a small number of children— (Time expired)

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

Mr President, I ask a supplementary question. I remind the minister that 44,219 people on 724 illegal boats have so far arrived on this government's watch. Given that in 2007 there were just four people in immigration detention who had arrived by boat, and none of these were children, will the minister now concede that Labor's decision to wind back the proven policies of the former Howard government has been directly responsible for the placing of over 1,600 children in immigration detention facilities?

Stephen Conroy (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

There are a small number of children who may not be able to be placed in the community due to particular risks associated with their parents or carers. In these circumstances, they remain in low security risk alternative places of detention. People arriving irregularly by boat are placed in held detention, as I said, until the necessary health, security and identity checks are completed and until they can be assessed for placement in community detention or out into the community on a BVE. Those opposite once again today demonstrate their complete hypocrisy. Those opposite keep trying to pretend that their policies would have worked and would work today. The expert panel has put forward 22 recommendations. (Time expired)

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

Mr President, I ask a further supplementary question. After more than 44,000 people arriving illegally, more than 1,000 confirmed drownings and 724 illegal boats, what does it take for this government to admit that it got it wrong when it wound back the proven border protection policies of the former Howard government?

Stephen Conroy (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

That is a question entirely aimed at achieving political advantage for those opposite. It is a question driven by nothing more than a cynical political game. If their tears were genuine tears rather than crocodile tears, those opposite would be backing each and every one of the Houston expert panel's 22 recommendations. But those opposite have chosen to put politics ahead of people's safety. They have chosen to encourage people to get on those boats. They have an opportunity—and have had for the last three years—to take a stand against people-smuggling operations but instead do nothing but tacitly encourage them. They have taken every opportunity to block measures to stop people-smuggling operations. They have done so time after time. (Time expired)