Media Release

Rudd Government starts unravelling off shore processing

Tuesday 9th March 2010

The Rudd Government has begun the process of unravelling the Coalition’s off shore processing regime by transferring detainees from an over crowded Christmas Island to Darwin before their asylum claims have been tested, according to the Shadow Minister for Immigration and Citizenship, Scott Morrison.

“On Saturday job advertisements were published by Serco, who manage the Government’s detention facility, for new permanent recruits for the Berrimah detention centre in Darwin. Today, there are also reports of local Darwin fire and rescue services being told to familiarise themselves with the facility,” Mr Morrison said.

“Department records show there were less than 50 people at the Berrimah centre at the end of January. The facility is currently used exclusively to detain crews of foreign fishing vessels, before they are either deported or transferred to other locations to face prosecution,” he said.

“The Prime Minister has said he will transfer detainees from Christmas Island to Darwin, before their asylum claims have been tested, and it appears that plan is now being put in motion by stealth.

“The Government should be up front with the Australian people about what they are doing. The decision to transfer detainees to the mainland is an admission that their decision to roll back the Coalition‘s border protection regime has comprehensively failed.

“Today the Prime Minister will meet with Indonesian President Yudhoyono to discuss people smuggling issues. He should begin these talks by acknowledging that his own policies and decisions are the primary cause for the problem.

“Australia cannot lecture Indonesia about people smuggling laws when it is our own policies that have created the product that people smugglers are selling with such success.

“International and regional cooperation is critical to tackling the problem of people smuggling. But international and regional cooperation cannot be used by the Rudd Government as a substitute for dealing with their own domestic policy failures.

“When the Coalition was in Government we had a strong working relationship with the Indonesian Government on people smuggling because we had credibility on the issue. We were doing all in our power to ensure that our own policies and decisions were not contributing to the problem.

“This is not the case with the Rudd Government. Whether it is their border protection roll back or rolling over to do special deals for the passengers on the Oceanic Viking, while leaving the Indonesian Government high and dry over the 250 people still sitting on the boat in Merak, the Rudd Government has failed to demonstrate the strong resolve this issue demands,” Mr Morrison said.