Mr LAURIE FERGUSON (2:12 PM) —My question is directed to the Prime Minister. I refer the Prime Minister to the reported intention of the member for Kooyong to move a private member’s bill to change the government’s detention system and the statement yesterday by the member for Pearce that:

Does the Prime Minister agree with the members for Kooyong and Pearce or does he retain confidence in his minister for immigration and her view that:

Mr HOWARD (Prime Minister) —Can I say in reply to the member for Reid that I have a great deal of respect for both the member for Kooyong and the member for Pearce. Each of them has made a very impressive contribution to the deliberations of this party. They have expressed views on a particular policy issue, as they are entitled to do inside a democratic party. The government’s policy on mandatory detention, its policy of returning boats, its policy of cooperation with neighbouring countries such as Indonesia and also its use of offshore processing facilities have all combined together to end Australia as a destination for illegal immigration and for people-smuggling. It remains the policy of this government to keep a policy of mandatory detention. That policy, as has been demonstrated by the announcements made some two months ago by the minister for immigration, will continue to be one where opportunities to administer it in a flexible and more compassionate way will be taken advantage of. That is an ongoing process. It is not something that is regarded as having been completed.

I remind the House, as I have been asked a question on this issue, that it is my understanding that at present some 1,004 people are in detention. Something in the order of 300 of those people have been in detention for more than 12 months. Quite a number of those people still have certain legal processes to be exhausted. Some of them are people whose applications for refugee status have not been successful but, for a combination of reasons, it is not practicable to return them to the countries from whence they came. It is at that group that the measures announced by the minister for immigration some two months ago were directed. Cases and people falling within that group continue to receive the attention of the department of immigration.

I was asked about my view of the minister for immigration. She continues to enjoy my strong support. There are a number of issues that are now being investigated concerning the department of immigration. When Mr Palmer’s report is to hand, the government will give further attention to those matters, but I can assure the House that opportunities on an ongoing basis will be taken to administer the policy of mandatory detention—which has been the policy of this government since it came to power and which will remain our policy and which was a policy introduced by the Keating government in 1992—in the most flexible and compassionate way consistent with its maintenance.