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

I move:

That the Senate—

  (a) notes that:

     (i) in 2013, the New Zealand Government first made an offer to Australia to resettle 150 refugees sent by Australia to Manus Island and Nauru,

     (ii) New Zealand Prime Minister, the Right Honourable Jacinda Ardern, has confirmed New Zealand's commitment to resettle 150 refugees sent by Australia to Manus Island and Nauru, stating that the offer remains "firmly on the table", and

     (iii) Prime Minister Ardern will again raise her country's offer to accept 150 refugees sent by Australia to Manus Island and Nauru when she meets Prime Minister Turnbull at the East Asia Summit in the Philippines this week; and

  (b) calls on Prime Minister Turnbull to accept New Zealand's offer to resettle 150 refugees sent by Australia to Manus Island and Nauru.

James McGrath (Queensland, Liberal National Party, Assistant Minister to the Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I seek leave to make a short statement.

Scott Ryan (President, Special Minister of State) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Leave is granted for one minute.

James McGrath (Queensland, Liberal National Party, Assistant Minister to the Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The coalition government will not weaken Australia's border protection measures. Senators will recall the tragic consequences of the last time the Australian Greens dictated border policy in this country, where 1,200 men, women and children drowned at sea and 8,000 children were placed in detention. No-one would be on Manus Island or Nauru if it were not for the disastrous policies of the Greens. If Senator McKim truly cared about the welfare of those on Manus and Nauru, he would get behind the government's US resettlement arrangement and stop counselling asylum seekers to act against their own best interests.

Scott Ryan (President, Special Minister of State) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The question is that notice of motion No. 561 standing in the name of Senator McKim be agreed to.