University of Tasmania, Australia

Julian Burnside QC barrister and asylum seeker advocate gave a public lecture entitled After the Election - The Future for Asylum Seeker Policy in Australia in the Stanley Burbury Theatre on Thursday 12 September 2013.

The premise of his lecture was the idea of the entire state of Tasmania being declared an immigration detention centre.

"If politicians are obsessed with the idea that asylum seekers must be kept in detention then that could be legally satisfied by declaring the island of Tasmania a place of detention," he said.

"Have officers of the Commonwealth at each port of departure and then allow the asylum seekers to live in the community in Tasmania. They would still legally be in detention."

Mr Burnside says the solution be the equivalent of community detention and save money.

"That would save on my estimates, in fact on government estimates, around about $3 billion a year."

He has suggested the Federal Government give the Tasmanian Government $1 billion a year as "a thank you".

"At least that would have the benefit of according with history because Tasmania was used as a place of detention some years ago."

The lecture was co-presented by the UTAS Faculty of Law and the Tasmanian University Law Society.