Ben Fordham has grilled Senator Kristina Keneally on her immigration position after she was appointed the shadow Home Affairs portfolio.

The former NSW premier has a history of being critical of the coalition’s boat turnback policy.

In an article in 2015 she wrote about the government’s boat turnback policy saying “instinctively I dislike the option of boat turnbacks”.

But now she says her position has changed and tells Ben she supports boat turnbacks “where is it safe to do so”.

Senator Keneally denies her comments in 2017 where she suggested Malcolm Turnbull should “bring the refugees to Australia”.

“No, I made the point that that is an option available to the government.”

Ben questioned her on her position on illegal vessels coming to Australia.

Kristina: Why have they [the government] not, sitting down with New Zealand today to try and find a way accept their offer… this government lacks the collective will to want to find a solution to return the people on Manus and Nauru.

Ben: To think that you could be giving them advice on trying to sort out this problem, when you consider your party’s history in this area, I think is extremely hypocritical.

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