The immigration minister, Peter Dutton, has said Australia’s regional processing relationship with Nauru will continue for “decades”.



In a speech on Thursday night to a Canberra-based policy thinktank that was interrupted briefly by protesters shouting “close the camps”, Dutton said regional processing had been critical to removing any incentive for people smugglers to undertake dangerous voyages in an attempt to reach Australian soil.

Protesters take to the stage during @peterdutton_MP's address to ASPI in Canberra #auspol pic.twitter.com/BIU902BJ12 — Stephanie Anderson (@stephanieando) September 15, 2016

“In the face of sustained activist opposition, we have maintained regional processing centres on Manus Island and Nauru. Our relationship in this regard with Nauru will continue for decades,” Dutton said.

“While the boats may have stopped, the spectre of people smuggling remains ever present in our region. We know that there are 14,000 people in Indonesia who would board a boat to Australia today if our border protection policies were weakened. And it would be just the start.”

The minister referred to ongoing discussions with countries on resettlement options, but he suggested there would be no imminent breakthroughs. “Negotiations will be protracted,” he said.

The speech also foreshadowed future reforms to the permanent skilled and family streams of the migration program.

Dutton will travel to New York with the prime minister next week to attend a United Nations-led summit on refugees, and in an interview with the al-Jazeera network foreshadowing the trip, the immigration minister appeared to hold open the prospect that asylum seekers could be settled in New Zealand.

Dutton indicated he would have no objections if people were sent to New Zealand, arguing that any resettlement was an issue between Nauru and New Zealand.

“We have had people smugglers that have tried to send boats across the top of Australia to New Zealand before,” Dutton said.



“Let me make this very important point that people – if they’ve sought to come by boat – it doesn’t matter where they’re resettled, New Zealand or somewhere else, they will not be coming to Australia at any point.”

The observation was a significant departure from previous government statements on this question. Since 2013, New Zealand has put a standing offer to Australia that it would take 150 people a year, but the Turnbull government has consistently shut the offer down, arguing it would give a green light to people smugglers.

After Dutton’s comments to al-Jazeera were published in Australia, the New Zealand immigration minister issued a two-line statement saying New Zealand was not contemplating any separate discussion with Nauru over the resettlement offer.

In questions after his speech on Thursday night, Dutton said there was absolutely no change in the government’s position on resettlement in New Zealand.

He said the question put to him on al-Jazeera referenced a deal that could be struck between Nauru and New Zealand, not an Australia-led negotiation. “There has been no change. Our position remains unchanged.”

Dutton told the Australian Strategic Policy Institute the government had to hold the line on deterrence measures because people smugglers “will not go quietly into the night; they are ruthless and sophisticated criminals”.



“They diligently follow the asylum seeker debate in this country, looking intently for any opportunity to restart what was a half-billion-dollar industry. Whatever decisions we make, we must always cast an eye to potential pull factors and the consequences that may follow.”

Dutton acknowledged there had been what he termed “issues in our strained detention and processing networks” – but he repeated his regular criticism of refugee advocates.

“Our detractors do no service to anyone by trading in false hope and speaking in disingenuous terms. Their entreaties to a different approach offer nothing but a holiday from history and ignore the fundamental reality that secure borders require policies that are tough and fair.”

“If they are not tough they will not be fair to those desperate people waiting in camps. And they will not be morally fair to those who will again be lured to the murky depths by the siren call of people smugglers.”

He also told his audience terrorist groups such as Daesh were “exploiting the mass movements of the international migrant crisis to move materials and personnel to support terrorism.”

“They are using chaos and volume as cover. Just two days ago three Syrian nationals who travelled through Turkey and Greece using fake passports were arrested in a series of pre-dawn terror raids in northern Germany,” Dutton said.

“The men were allegedly assisted by the same smuggler organisation behind the Paris attacks.”

During the period of questions Dutton was asked why John Howard could soften the “Pacific Solution” and bring people held offshore back to Australia in the mid 2000s – but the Turnbull government was resisting current entreaties to bring people out of what is proving to be indefinite detention.

The immigration minister suggested criminal syndicates lacked the capacity during the Howard years to communicate quickly with one another about political statements being made in Australia. “We have to learn the lessons of history but we have to have a contemporary view,” Dutton said.

The minister said the government was working “very very intensely with a number of partners” on third country resettlement – but complex resolutions to complex problems can’t be announced overnight.