Pacific Solution

This article is part of a series about John Howard
Early life Member for Bennelong (1974–2007) Minister for Business and Consumer Affairs Minister for Special Trade Negotiations Treasurer of Australia Early 1980s recession 1983 Liberal Party leadership election 1985 Liberal Party leadership spill Joh for Canberra debacle 1987 Liberal Party leadership spill One Australia 1989 Liberal Party leadership spill Shadow Minister for Industrial Relations 1993 Liberal Party leadership spill 1995 Liberal Party leadership spill Prime Minister of Australia Term of government (1996–2007) Gun control Workplace Relations Act 1996 1996 Parliament House riot Wik Peoples v Queensland Waterfront dispute Native Title Amendment Act 1998 Work for the Dole scheme 1998 Australian Constitutional Convention Republic referendum Australian intervention in East Timor GST and taxation Tampa affair The Pacific Solution Australian involvement in the War in Afghanistan Australian involvement in the Iraq War Marriage Amendment Act 2004 WorkChoices Northern Territory intervention Ministries First Ministry Second Ministry Third Ministry Fourth Ministry Elections 1987 1996 1998 2001 2004 2007 Lazarus Rising
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The Pacific Solution is the name given to the government of Australia's policy of transporting asylum seekers to detention centres on island nations in the Pacific Ocean, rather than allowing them to land on the Australian mainland. Initially implemented from 2001 to 2007, it had bipartisan support from the Coalition and Labor opposition at the time. The Pacific Solution consisted of three central strategies:

• Thousands of islands were excised from the Australian migration zone and Australian territory;
• The Australian Defence Force commenced Operation Relex to intercept vessels carrying asylum seekers (SIEVs);
• The asylum seekers were removed to detention centres in Nauru and on Manus Island, Papua New Guinea, while their refugee status was determined.

A number of pieces of legislation enabled this policy. The policy was developed by the Howard government in response to the Tampa affair in August 2001 and the Children Overboard affair,^[1] and was implemented by Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock on 28 September before the 2001 federal election of 24 November.

The policy was largely dismantled in 2008 by the first Rudd government following the election of the Labor Party; Chris Evans, the Minister for Immigration and Citizenship described it as "a cynical, costly and ultimately unsuccessful exercise".^[2]

In August 2012, the succeeding Gillard government (Labor) introduced a similar policy, reopening the Nauru and Manus detention centres for offshore processing.^[3]

On 19 July 2013, newly returned Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, during his short-lived second term of office, announced that "asylum seekers who come here by boat without a visa will never be settled in Australia",^[4] striking a Regional Resettlement Arrangement between Australia and Papua New Guinea,^[5] colloquially known as the PNG Solution, to divert all "unauthorised maritime arrivals" to mandatory detention on Manus Island with no possibility of attaining Australian residency.^[6]

The Operation Sovereign Borders policy took over from the Pacific Solution after the 2013 federal election, won by the Coalition. It commenced on 18 September 2013 under the new Abbott government.^[7] On 31 March 2019, Operation Sovereign Borders reported that there were no people held in the detention centre on Nauru, which had been closed, and that the Manus centre had been officially closed on 31 October 2017.^[8] However, on 30 September 2019 the total number of asylum seekers still in PNG and Nauru was 562 (separate numbers were not published), being housed in alternative accommodation.^[9]