Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

As the Minister for Immigration and Citizenship has said on a number of occasions, the Christmas Island facility has sufficient capacity within it at present. He has also indicated on the public record that further provision has been made at an associated facility in Darwin. The government has made no bones about the fact that we will maintain a policy of mandatory detention for the speedy and proper processing of asylum seekers. This challenge, as I said in a press conference earlier today, has been with us in the past and will remain with us into the future—as it remains with other countries around the world.

However, there is a key difference in approach. We believe in an approach which is balanced, which is tough but humane, when it comes to the challenge of asylum seekers. Yet we have on the part of the Leader of the Opposition a complete abandonment of principle in his response to the statements today by the member for O’Connor. This government makes no bones about the fact that we maintain a policy of mandatory detention to ensure that asylum seekers undertake health, identity and security checks when they arrive. However, the member for O’Connor went out there today and, effectively, claimed that every second or third boat arriving in Australia is carrying terrorists. That is what the member for O’Connor has, in effect, alleged today.

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