Coalition ‘has twice released all kids held in immigration detention’

David Coleman says the government has for ‘some time’ been ‘quietly’ trying to solve the asylum-seeker problem.

Kerryn Phelps has said Scott Morrison was dragged ‘kicking and screaming’ into releasing children from Nauru. Picture: Kym Smith

Coalition governments have twice cleared children out of immigration detention, despite claims from independent MP Kerryn Phelps that Scott Morrison was dragged “kicking and screaming” into releasing children from Nauru because of the Wentworth by-­election last October.

Immigration Minister David Coleman yesterday hit back at Dr Phelps, saying the government had for “some time” been “quietly” trying to solve the problem Labor ­created. “When we came to office, there were 2000 children in onshore detention in Australia — we got them all out. We have now ­arranged for all children to be transferred from Nauru,” he told The Australian.

“This is something the government has been working on for some time, quietly and in a way that would not impact our border protection policies.

“Our track record on this issue is clear: we got the kids out of onshore detention and off Nauru. We have stopped the flow of unlawful boat arrivals and deaths at sea, and we have increased our humanitarian program by 35 per cent since coming into government.”

John Howard established the “Pacific solution” in 2001 after the Tampa affair, where the former prime minister refused to let a boat with 433 asylum-seekers into Australia. Under Mr Howard’s policy, supported by the then Labor opposition, boats from Indonesia to Australia were intercepted and asylum-seekers were put in detention on Christmas Island, Manus Island and Papua New Guinea.

The policy stemmed the flow of boats and reduced the number of total immigration detainees from 9321 in 2001-02 to 4397 in 2008-09, according to research from the parliamentary library.

There were only four people in offshore detention when Mr Howard left office in 2007, including no children, Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton told parliament last year.

Kevin Rudd dismantled the ­policy in 2008. The total number of immigration detainees peaked at 27,721 in 2013-14.

Under Labor, there were 50,000 illegal arrivals in 800 boats and 1200 people died at sea.