"And so with the facts on the table and these uniting principles as our guide we move forward. We move forward to an effective, sustainable, long-term solution;
To stop the boats not at our shoreline but before they even leave those far away port;
To ensure people smugglers have nothing to sell and so ending the long and dangerous voyages.
That means building a regional approach to the processing of asylum seekers, with the involvement of the UNHCR, which effectively eliminates the on shore processing of unauthorised arrivals and ensures that anyone seeking asylum is subject to a consistent process of assessment in the same place.
A regional processing centre removing the incentive once and for all for the people smugglers to send boats to Australia. Why risk a dangerous journey if you will simply be returned to the regional processing centre?
To this end I can report today that I have already taken steps to achieve this goal.
Irregular migration is a global challenge, and like all global challenges it can only be tackled by nations working together.
That?s why we have put so much effort into regional cooperation in recent years.
We co-chair the Bali Process with Indonesia, and through this process, we are working with our regional neighbours and key organizations like the UNHCR and the International Organisation for Migration, to manage irregular migration and stop people smuggling, and can I say how much we appreciate and value our cooperation with Indonesia as co-chair.
We do these things because we believe that building a sustainable regional protection framework is the most effective way to address irregular migration, including to Australia.
Building on the work already underway through the Bali Process, today I announce that we will begin a new initiative. In recent days I have discussed with President Ramos Horta of East Timor the possibility of establishing a regional processing centre for the purpose of receiving and processing of the irregular entrants to the region.
The purpose would be to ensure that people smugglers have no product to sell. Arriving by boat would just be a ticket back to the regional processing centre.
It would be to ensure that everyone is subject to a consistent, fair, assessment processes.
It would be to ensure that arriving by boat does not give anybody an advantage in the likelihood that they would end up settling in Australia or other countries of the region.
It would, of course, have to be a properly run, properly auspiced, properly structured centre.
President Ramos Horta told me that he welcomed the conversation about this possibility and I look forward to further consultation and dialogue on developing this initiative into a proposal that would advance the proper and consistent treatment of people arriving without authorisation in our region.
I have also spoken to New Zealand?s Prime Minister, John Key, about this possibility, and he has said to me that he would be open to considering this initiative constructively.
East Timor and New Zealand are vital countries in this initiative as they are already signatories to the Refugee Convention, and New Zealand ? like Australia ? is a key resettlement country.
I have also already discussed this initiative with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Antonio Guterres.
Australia maintains its strong support for the capacity of the UN to ensure appropriate forms of refugee assessment.
I told the High Commissioner that my Government is not interested in pursuing a new Pacific Solution - instead Australia was committed to the development of a sustainable, effective regional protection framework.
Again, I look forward to a constructive and concrete dialogue with the UNHCR on this initiative."
She says she has discussed a regional solution with E Timor, NZ and the UN. She does not say where the centre would be located.
