to a country that has no legal obligations to protect them. There were calls on the Australian Government to reinstate the Pacific Solution by reopening the detention centres on Nauru. Several of these came from former outspoken critics of the policy. Refugee lawyer Marion Le, who had demanded the facility be shut down in 2005, said that it was "time for Labor to bite the bullet and reopen Nauru", while human rights lawyer Julian Burnside disagreed, but conceded that "Nauru [was] certainly the less worse, but both are unacceptable." This echoed the sentiment of Independent MP Andrew Wilkie who several days previously, while stopping short of calling for a return to the previous arrangement, noted that "John Howard's Pacific Solution was better." The Malaysian people swap deal was deemed unlawful by the High Court. During the 2010 Australian federal election campaign Liberal Leader Tony Abbott said he would meet with the President of Nauru, Marcus Stephen, to demonstrate the Coalition's resolve to reinstate the Pacific Solution policy, should he become Prime Minister. Prime Minister Julia Gillard announced 6 July 2010 that talks were under way to set up a regional processing centre for asylum seekers in East Timor. In August 2012, a government-appointed expert panel (Houston Report) recommended a number of changes to the current policy including the reintroduction of the Pacific Solution after an increase in boat people and deaths at sea. It handed down 22 recommendations, including the immediate reopening of immigration detention facilities on Manus Island and Nauru, which the government implemented with bipartisan support. This was expected to cost $2 billion over four years for Nauru and $900 million for Papua New Guinea. The bill to do so was passed on 16 August 2012. Asylum seekers who arrive by boat to Australia are now to be transferred to remote Pacific islands indefinitely while their claims to refugee status are being processed. Amnesty International described the conditions of the Nauru detention facility as "appalling" at this time. The Government announced on 21 November 2012 that it was recommencing onshore processing with bridging visas. On 21 November 2012 Immigration Minister Chris Bowen announced the reopening the Pontville Detention Centre in Tasmania. On 19 July 2013 in a joint press conference with PNG Prime Minister Peter O'Neill and Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd detailed the Regional Resettlement Arrangement between Australia and Papua New Guinea: The subsequent Department of Immigration