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

My question is to the Leader of the Government representing the Prime Minister. Minister, the Acting Chief Migration Officer of Papua New Guinea, Solomon Kantha, has confirmed that 60 people who sought asylum from Australia and who have since been detained in the illegal detention centre on Manus Island will be forcibly deported from Papua New Guinea and that travel documents for this are currently being prepared. Is the government aware of this, and what representations, if any, have you made to the PNG government?

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

Senator McKim, I have not seen the statement by the minister of the New Guinean government to whom you refer—

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

It was the Chief Migration Officer.

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

I am sorry, the Chief Migration Officer of the government of New Guinea. I have not seen that statement. The arrangements put in place by the previous Labor government in relation to Manus Island, which you supported at the time, are arrangements which this government has been forced to deal with as a legacy of those who went before us. As you know, Senator McKim, it was announced at the end of last year—

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

Order! Pause the clock. A point of order, Senator McKim?

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

I have two matters. Firstly, the Attorney has just misled the chamber by saying that the Greens supported that.

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

That is not a point of order, Senator McKim.

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

My second point goes to relevance. The question very clearly was: is the government aware that Papua New Guinea is intending to forcibly deport 60 people who sought asylum from Australia, and what representations, if any, has the government made? I am not interested in a homily from Senator Brandis that misleads the Senate on the facts of the matter.

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

I did hear the Attorney-General indicate that he was not aware of the comments raised, and that was partly in relation to your preamble. The minister still has one minute and 20 seconds in which to answer the question. The minister is aware of the question.

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

Senator McKim, although I am not aware of the statements of this gentleman from the New Guinean government, I can tell you that I am advised that the 60 asylum seekers of whom you speak are people who have not been assessed to be refugees. Whatever protection obligations may attach to the government of New Guinea are protection obligations that attach to people either who have been assessed to be refugees or whose claim to be assessed as refugees is underway. I am advised that these 60 people are people whose claim to be refugees has been rejected by the appropriate authorities.

Ian Macdonald (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

So they are not refugees.

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

In fairness to Senator McKim, Senator Macdonald, he did say asylum seekers. But he did not disclose in his question that these people are people whose claim to be refugees has been rejected. In those circumstances, under international law and under the refugee convention, the country to whom they make application for asylum has every right to return them to the country of their citizenship.

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

Senator McKim, a supplementary question.

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

Given the opportunities under Papua New Guinean law for refugee status determinations to be appealed, does the Australian government support forced deportations—which, by the way, are not in line with international law—prior to detainees being given the chance to exhaust all legal avenues?

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

Senator McKim, we support New Guinean law and we support international law, including the refugee convention. The people of whom you speak are people who have been assessed by the relevant authorities and under the international refugee convention not to be genuine refugees. Therefore, New Guinea, as the state of their current residence, has every right to secure their return to the country whence they have come.

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

On a point of order, if I might, Mr President. I know the Attorney has resumed his seat, but with regard to relevance the question was specifically whether the Australian government supports forced deportations prior to detainees being given the chance to exhaust all legal avenues. He has sat down, but I ask that you give him an opportunity to actually respond to the question.

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

I will give the Attorney-General an opportunity, if he wishes, to revisit the question in the remaining 11 seconds. But, if he has concluded his answer, then we move to the final supplementary question.

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

No support for the rule of law from the Attorney-General of Australia.

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

Senator McKim, your question?

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

Attorney, it is now 10 months since the Papua New Guinea Supreme Court declared the Lombrum detention centre illegal. Will you now, in the name of compassion and common decency, close the camps on Manus Island and Nauru and bring every person currently detained indefinitely here to Australia so we can look after them and try to help them repair the harm we have caused by torturing them?

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

(   First of all, Senator McKim, the Australian government does not conduct the camp on Manus Island; it is conducted by the government of New Guinea. Secondly, the arrangements for the establishment of the camp on Manus Island were created not by the government in which I serve, but by the government of Mr Kevin Rudd.

Thirdly, as I tried to point out to you in my answer to your primary question, this government has been working to secure a more favourable outcome for the people on Manus Island, in particular by negotiating an agreement with the government of the United States which currently is being executed. That agreement with the Obama administration, which was the subject of much talk last week after the telephone conversation between Prime Minister Turnbull and President Trump, has been affirmed by President Trump, the Secretary of State and by President Trump's spokesman. So that is what the Australian government is doing to clean up another Labor mess.