Stephen Conroy says scandals in Nauru and Manus Island detention centres could have been avoided under proposal

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

The Labor senator Stephen Conroy says he is “absolutely gobsmacked” to hear Tony Abbott now wishes he had supported the former Gillard government’s people-swap deal with Malaysia, rather than opposed it.

Abbott admitted on Friday to wondering whether his decision to oppose the former Gillard government’s so-called “Malaysia solution” in 2011 had contributed to the “hyper-partisanship” that now poisons Australian politics.

Conroy said on Sunday the current scandals inside the Nauru and Manus Island detention centres would have been avoided if the Gillard government’s proposal to send 800 asylum seekers to Malaysia in exchange for 4000 processed refugees had been allowed to go through parliament when Abbott was the opposition leader.

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“This would have avoided all of these problems,” Conroy told Sky News on Sunday. “There were 600-odd deaths [at sea] after the ‘Malaysia solution’ was rejected and all of the problems that have now emerged at Nauru and Manus would not have happened.”

In late 2011 the high court ruled that the Gillard government’s so-called “Malaysia solution” was invalid and Abbott refused to support the then government’s bill to override the ruling.

But on Friday Abbott said in a speech to the Samuel Griffith Society that he now wonders about his behaviour then.

“The 800 boat people that could have been sent to Malaysia was less than a month’s intake, even then,” Abbott said.

“I doubt it would have worked. Still, letting it stand would have been an acknowledgment of the government of the day’s mandate to do the best it could, by its own lights, to meet our nation’s challenges.

“It would have been a step back from the hyper-partisanship that now poisons our public life.”

The Labor leader, Bill Shorten, seized on Abbott’s comments on Sunday, saying the Turnbull government should now support a Senate inquiry into the detention of people in Nauru, after allegations of abuse and self-harm in incident reports leaked to Guardian Australia last week.

“I think it’s very telling that Tony Abbott himself said that he wishes he’d gone with Labor’s Malaysia solution a few years ago and we could have perhaps avoided what we’re seeing now,” Shorten said.

“I hope the government, in the spirit of bipartisanship, will accept our invitation and support a Senate inquiry.

The Greens leader, Richard Di Natale, said on Sunday there ought to be a royal commission into the events inside Nauru’s detention centre.



“While these centres continue to be open we’re going to the sort of abuses occurring on kids,” he told Sky News.

The Labor senator Sam Dastyari told the ABC’s Insiders program that the Turnbull government had a “secrecy fetish”.



“Who are we as a nation, who are we as a people, if we’re going to turn around and turn a blind eye to this type of human rights violations?” Dastyari said.

