Senator CONROY (Victoria—Leader of the Government in the Senate, Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy and Minister Assisting the Prime Minister on Digital Productivity) (14:38): The Gillard government is the only party in this chamber committed to stopping people drowning at sea at the hands of people smugglers. It is the only party in this chamber committed to that—with apologies to the Greens. We asked three experts—Angus Houston, Paris Aristotle and Michael L'Estrange—to come back to us with a plan. The Houston report contains 22 recommendations, a suite of measures which the experts believe, once implemented as a whole, will drive down the number of people risking their life at sea. Senator Brandis: Mr President, I rise on a point of order on the issue of direct relevance. The question pointed out that there were 1,600 children in detention under Senator Conroy's government, when there had been no children in detention under the previous Howard government. He was asked to concede whether the policy had failed. You should direct him to the question. Senator Wong: Mr President, on the point of order: the question went wider than that, and, on the allegation of policy failure, the minister is entitled, quite relevantly, to respond. The PRESIDENT: There is no point of order at this stage. I am listening closely to your answers, Senator Conroy. You have one minute and 16 seconds remaining. Senator CONROY: As I said, there were 22 recommendations, a suite of measures which the experts believe, once implemented as a whole, will drive down the number of people risking their life at sea and reduce the number of boat arrivals. If we exclude families from certain measures such as transfers to Manus or Nauru, we will be encouraging parents to put their children on boats to avoid the no-advantage rule. We are committed to doing everything the experts recommended to discourage people from making a dangerous— Senator Cash: Mr President, I too rise on a point of order in relation to direct relevance. My question was actually quite narrow in its focus, the question being: will the minister now concede that there are more children in formal detention, being the number of 1,600, than in 2010, when the previous minister announced that all children would be removed from formal detention? I too ask that you direct the minister to the question. The PRESIDENT: I believe the minister is answering the question. The minister still has 42 seconds remaining to answer the question. Senator CONROY: The Australian government is committed to ensuring that children are accommodated in the community where appropriate. There will always be a period of time immediately after arrival when children and their parents and carers will be placed in APODs while initial identity, health and character checks are undertaken. These checks include assessing whether or not it is reasonably practicable to take an offshore entry person to Manus or Nauru. The average period that families with children are in held detention is around 120 days. There are a small number of children— (Time expired)