QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE: TAKE NOTE OF ANSWERS

Senator SHOEBRIDGE (New South Wales) (15:33): I move: That the Senate take note of the answer given by Minister representing the Minister for Immigration and Citizenship (Senator Watt) to a question without notice asked by Senator Waters relating to migration. Labor, today, announced a policy to build new immigration jails and to fund hundreds of additional uniformed Border Force officers to go knocking on people's doors, taking them away and putting them in the immigration jails run by a US private jail corporation.

Then they come in here, and, when the Greens ask them a question about their lurch to the right on immigration, the minister steps up and says, 'I knew the Greens were going to compare Labor's policy to ICE and to Trump's policy in ICE.' Of course Labor knew because, literally, what Labor is doing here is picking up the Trump ICE playbook. They said loudly and proudly at the at the Press Club that Labor is going to reopen immigration detentions and build new immigration jails.

We already know that Labor is contracting for all of its existing immigration jails with a US multinational bottom-feeder private jail corporation which is renowned for corrupting governments and abusing the rights of people in detention. That's who Labor already have a contract with for the existing prison system. Now they're getting that corporate mate of Trump to run new expanded prison jails here, and they're funding the prison a new uniformed Border Force team to go and knock on doors in suburban Australia and in towns across this country in the quiet of the night to put people in Labor's new immigration jails.

And they wonder why we compare them to ICE. This is extraordinary. This is what Labor has sunk to—actively reheating Tony Abbott's policies, only this time with a little mean twist of Donald Trump.

If Labor doesn't want these policies compared to ICE, they shouldn't behave like ICE. If you don't want to be compared to Donald Trump, don't take his policies and apply them, funding them with public money. We know how to have a fast, effective and fair immigration program.

It starts with processing substantive visas. It means fully funding Home Affairs to get over the backlogs, funding trusted legal bodies to assist with migration applications, not more jails. (Time expired)