Kristina Keneally (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Senator Payne. Laura, who is stranded in Spain and wants to come home, has had her status changed by DFAT to 'not seeking to return to Australia', despite making it clear to a caller from DFAT that she was trying to return as soon as possible and had flights booked in coming weeks. She said:

I can't shake the feeling that the call and subsequent reclassifications on the DFAT portal are a cynical drive to deliver the government a Christmas miracle.

Why isn't the Prime Minister setting up a national quarantine facility at Learmonth or other locations so that stranded Australians can get home before Christmas, as he promised, instead of cooking the books to make it look like they don't want to be home by Christmas?

Marise Payne (NSW, Liberal Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Keneally for her question. I absolutely reject any suggestion that members of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade or any other public servants engaged in consultation with Australians about their current status are 'cooking the books', to use her pejorative term. Let me be very clear: DFAT will not remove any Australians from its registration database without their consent. I am not familiar with the specific example to which Senator Keneally has referred, but I will undertake to take details from her after question time and follow that up.

What we have done is work with Services Australia to contact registered Australians to ensure that the information we have in our database is up to date and correct. Having detailed information assists us with planning for facilitated commercial flights. That includes the Qantas flight that arrived in Hobart yesterday from New Delhi. It also helps us to prioritise vulnerable Australians within the caps on incoming passenger arrivals. I don't know how those opposite suggest that we actually manage this process without having the most current information and without having up-to-date data from Australians.

We are in the middle of a global pandemic, and people's circumstances do change and are changing very quickly. Within the registration database, there are different status fields related to Australians' intentions to return. We will only change their status on their behalf based on information that has been provided to the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and, as I said, we will not remove Australians from our registration database without their consent.

This is a very intensive process to try to support as many Australians as we can. Since 18 September, over 43,800 Australians have returned from overseas. That includes more than 17,000 Australians registered with DFAT, of which— (Time expired)

Scott Ryan (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Keneally, a supplementary question?

Kristina Keneally (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It has been 80 days since the Prime Minister promised the 26,000 stranded Australians on DFAT's list that they would be home by Christmas. Only 17,000 on that list have come home. Given the Prime Minister only has three days to deliver on his promise and bring the remaining stranded Australians on DFAT's list as of 18 September home by Christmas, how many of those stranded Australians will not make it home by Christmas?

Marise Payne (NSW, Liberal Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

As Senator Keneally has observed and as I said in my previous answer, over 43,800 Australians have returned from overseas, which includes more than 17,000 Australians registered with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. Of those, over 3,700 were vulnerable. We have been seeking information from those Australians to ensure that we are able to assist them with the most up-to-date and timely information. Since 23 October, we have facilitated 13 commercial flights, returning 1,847 passengers. In the last four weeks alone, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade has made over 30,000 offers of places on flights to Australians registered overseas. This is a very complex process to assist Australians who are in very difficult circumstances in many cases; I absolutely acknowledge that. But, since 18 September, at least 43,000 Australians have been able to return from overseas. (Time expired)

Scott Ryan (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Keneally, a final supplementary question?

Kristina Keneally (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Why is it that Mr Morrison prioritises flying his mate, former finance minister Mathias Cormann, around Europe to the tune of $4,300 an hour while tens of thousands of Australians are left behind overseas by his government?

Marise Payne (NSW, Liberal Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

(—) (): As I understand it—and we are grateful for this support—those opposite support the very important campaign to seek the election of Mathias Cormann to lead the OECD at a time when the world needs strong leadership such as that that Mr Cormann would deliver. The OECD has never been led by anybody from our region. But it does beggar the imagination that those opposite would seek to conflate their cheap political point with the important process of getting Australians back to Australia. I would suggest that the effort that the consular officers of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, that the effort that officials are making to return Australians, literally in every capital where Australians are located, and to support them, is a very, very focused and conscientious one. But we are operating in the middle of a pandemic. We are operating with quarantine caps; we are operating with flight restrictions, and we have returned over 43,800 Australians since— (Time expired)