Nick McKim (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to Senator Brandis, the Minister representing the Prime Minister. Attorney, the United States has agreed to consider accepting refugees currently detained on Manus Island and Nauru. Given that this deal creates the possibility of people who sought asylum by attempting to come to Australia by boat being resettled in a durable way in a developed nation, will you now admit that the government's entire policy of deterrence was based on a myth? Will you admit that your government's deliberate harm of men, women and children was actually for political purposes, not humanitarian purposes? Will you apologise to the people you have deliberately harmed and will you do the right thing by settling all of them, genuine refugees or not, here in Australia?

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

Senator McKim, I am very proud of the fact that there are no children in detention in Australia today. When the government of which I am a member came into office, there were 2,000—in fact 1,992. That was at the end of the period of Labor government which had seen 8,000 children in detention. As a result of the policies of this government and the work of two ministers, Mr Morrison and Mr Dutton, there are now no children in detention. We have closed 17 detention centres in Australia because there is nothing for them to do. They are surplus to requirements, they are surplus to capacity, because we have solved the problem.

Stephen Parry (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator McKim, on a point of order?

Nick McKim (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Yes, it is a point of order based on relevance. The Attorney was specifically asked whether he accepts that the government's deterrence policy was a myth; and will he in fact do the right thing and resettle people from Manus and Nauru here in Australia. We do not need the Attorney's version, rewriting history, about what has actually happened. The question was very specific.

Stephen Parry (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you, Senator McKim. In fact, you really destroyed your own point of order in the way you framed it, because the Attorney-General was exactly answering that point—about whether it was a myth or not. The Attorney-General has been in order.

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

Senator McKim—through you, Mr President—it is not a myth if it worked, and it did. It did: zero children in detention; no successful attempt to penetrate Australia's maritime borders for some 850 days; no deaths at sea, compared to the 1,200 or more that we know about during the period of the Labor government. And now, at last, we are dealing with the final legacy of the previous, Labor government—the offshore processing centres at Manus Island and Nauru.

Now, the Australian government has reached an agreement with the government of the United States of America, the details of which were announced by the Prime Minister and the Minister for Immigration and Border Protection last week. But I wonder when the day will eventually come that the fact that this problem has been comprehensively solved by this government— (Time expired)

Stephen Parry (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

A supplementary question, Senator McKim.

Nick McKim (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The supplementary question—not that we got an answer to the first one, I hasten to add—is this: Attorney, given that your government has now undermined its own myth of deterrence and conceded that warehousing our fellow human beings in indefinite offshore detention is actually a dead end, which we agree with, why won't you take the sensible step of resettling everyone detained on Manus Island and Nauru here in Australia?

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

Through you, Mr President—Senator McKim, I sometimes think you must live in a parallel universe. Under the previous government, there were 800 boats; under this government, there have been zero. Under the previous government, 8,000 children went through the detention centre system in Australia; today there are zero. We have put the people smugglers out of business. We have closed the 17 detention centres that had to be opened by the previous, Labor government as a result of their having absolutely and comprehensively lost control of this problem by losing control of Australia's borders. And now we are dealing with the last aspect of the legacy left to us by the Labor government, because every one of those people on Manus Island and Nauru was put there not by this government but by the Labor government. I am waiting to hear you acknowledge that fact, Senator McKim.

Stephen Parry (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator McKim, a final supplementary question.

Nick McKim (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I will not be acknowledging that fact, because it is simply not true. Attorney, my supplementary question is this: how many people does the government anticipate will be resettled in the United States; under what terms will they be resettled; and what will become of our fellow human beings who are seeking asylum, and those who have not been found to be genuine refugees? What will become of them, Attorney; and will you do the right thing morally and legally and bring them here to Australia?

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

Senator McKim, I think the last point I made in response to your previous question must have missed you, so let me just say it again. The people on Manus Island and Nauru who we are dealing with and seeking to resettle are people who were put there not by this government but by the previous, Labor government.

Now, Senator McKim, you inquire about the terms of the arrangements. The terms of the arrangements were announced by the Prime Minister and the Minister for Immigration and Border Protection last Sunday week, and effect will be given to those arrangements in the near future.