Mr Whitlam m asked the Minister for Immigration, upon notice -

Mr Downer - The answer to the honorable member's question is as follows: -

(a)   and (b). I should be pleased to supply the honorable member with this information if it were practicable to do so. My department and the Commonwealth Statistician collect and publish a considerable body of information concerning migrants and other persons arriving in Aus tralia. The size of this task is indicated by the fact that, since World War II., it has involved maintaining statistical data on 3,050,000 persons arriving in Australia, including 1,667,000 longterm and permanent arrivals. As the honorable member will appreciate, the extension of this statistical coverage to persons seeking to come to Australia and rejected on security or other grounds would add considerably to an already heavy task. It would only be possible to obtain this information by examining in Australia and in our overseas posts individual case files amounting to some millions. I regret that the amount of work involved in doing this makes it impracticable for me to meet the honorable member's request.