E&EO…………………………………………………………………………………………..

LAURA JAYES:

I spoke to the Minister earlier.

PETER DUTTON:

They won't under any circumstance be coming to Australia to settle here and we have been consistent in that approach and it's very important that people in the Manus Island detention centre hear this message, very clearly, that they will not settle in Australia but we will work with those people, we'll work with the PNG Government to help them settle in PNG, to help them return back to their country of origin, but we have been very clear that they will not be coming to Australia.

LAURA JAYES:

So they are the only two options at the moment for them to be resettled in PNG or for them to return to their country of origin, there is no third country solution at the moment, is that correct?

PETER DUTTON:

That's correct.

LAURA JAYES:

So are you still hoping for a third country solution? Because it would seem like an enormous effort to resettle 960 people in PNG or send them back to their country of origin. I imagine that the Government, both governments have been making efforts behind the scenes to do that over the last couple of years anyway, why will now change?

PETER DUTTON:

Well the difficulty for a lot of people is they're hearing messages from a lot of advocates in Australia who are saying don't accept the settlement packages to return back to your country of origin, eventually the Government will change its position and you'll come and live in Australia. We're very adamant, very clear in our messaging so far that it will send a very clear message when the detention centre closes that our position is not going to change and in that circumstance my judgement is that people will accept the settlement packages to return back to their country of origin.

We are still working on third country arrangements and we'll continue that work, but we have to be very clear, we have to do it in a way that if we had a third country arrangement, to third country settlement option, that it was introduced in a way that didn't allow boats or provide an incentive for people smugglers to put people back on the boats to come to our country and that's the position that we've taken.

We have not deviated from that position one bit and we were voted in at the last election, as we were at the one before that, because we've come up with this successful policy around border protection that has seen 17 detention centres close in Australia. It has meant that we've got every child out of detention when Labor had 8,000 children in detention. Twelve-hundred people drowned under Labor and nobody has drowned since the commencement of Operation Sovereign Borders and we want the success to continue but because we've not had these boat arrivals it means that we don't need the capacity within the Manus Island Processing Centre.

LAURA JAYES:

Minister, why isn't there…and you say the border protection measures are working, so why isn't there a Howard Government option here whereby, you know, when the Tamper situation happened under the Howard Government, John Howard then said at the time that no one will be resettled in Australia, then after several years some people were actually settled in Australia and they've proved to be, you know, fully functioning members of our society. If the border control, the turn backs are working as you say, why can't you do what John Howard did?

PETER DUTTON:

I just think you need to look at the modern reality Laura. So if you look at the fact that, as the UN says, there are 65 million people who are displaced or would look to come to a country like Australia tomorrow. We're seen the situation unfold in Europe and elsewhere around the world where people are crossing borders, they're desperate to get out of Africa or out of the Middle East or other parts of the world, and there are six and a half million people who are displaced internally just within Syria to put the problem into perspective.

So yes you're right, I mean we have a great resettlement programme. We settle 13,750 people a year and that will increase over the next few years, but we do it in an orderly way, we do it in a way that doesn't allow people to drown at sea, we bring people in by plane, we provide them with settlement services and you're right, since the Second World War we've brought in well over 800,000 refugees and Australia, modern Australia, has been built off the back of migration. But it needs to be done in an orderly way and all of the research, I might say, demonstrates that the Australian public strongly support migration programmes when governments have control of those programmes. People don't want to see people smugglers in control of the migration programme and dictating to our Government, or to our people, when people will come on boats.

We have taken tough decisions, but they have been necessary and they are the right decisions and I believe that if we can continue the same resolve that we've shown over the last few years that we can stare this problem down.

We do have significant assets at sea, in the air, we have disruption techniques in a number of counties and we're working with many partners throughout the region. This is a very sophisticated operation that we have in Operation Sovereign Borders and the dividend today from that success has been that we can announce in concert with our good friends in PNG, the closure of the Manus Island detention centre, and that's a very good outcome.

But as I say, one of the proudest achievements has been getting every child out of detention here in Australia and we want to make sure that we can get people off Nauru as quickly as possible, but we're not going to do it in such a way that would see new children and families arrive into those places that have been made vacant by taking people off today. If we do it in a way that provides a pull factor, we will see boats restart, we will see people drown at sea, and that's not what this Government has been elected to deliver.

LAURA JAYES:

Is there a timeframe, has it been discussed with Peter O'Neill, are we talking months or years to resettle or find alternative arrangements for these 960 people?

PETER DUTTON:

Well Laura, as you can expect, it's a complex issue, unwinding the arrangement that Mr Rudd entered into, so it will take some time. But we're working closely together and our officials have been in discussions and they will continue with those discussions. No doubt we'll have further discussions at a ministerial level in the not too distant future, but...

LAURA JAYES:

…are you talking months, or years?

PETER DUTTON:

Well I don't want to define the time. I would like to see it as soon as possible but ultimately this is a decision for the PNG Government and we'll work with our

partners in PNG to make it a reality. But it is a very good dividend of having stopped the boats and restoring order to our borders.

LAURA JAYES:

Minister Peter Dutton, thank you for your time.

PETER DUTTON:

Thanks Laura, thank you.

[ends]