Source document: https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/1697633988577.pdf (Australia)
QUESTION TAKEN ON NOTICE BUDGET ESTIMATES HEARING : 22 May 2017 IMMIGRATION AND BORDER PROTECTION PORTFOLIO (BE17/153) - PNG refugee status determination numbers - Programme 1.5: IMA Offshore Management Senator McKim, Nick (L&CA) written: In relation to Manus Island, why are there more confirmed positive decisions than interim positive decisions?

Until March 2016, the number of final decisions was always less than the number of interim decisions, suggesting they were a sub-set of the interim decisions.
As of March 2016, however, there have been more finals than interims.

Taking the latest statistics as an example, they indicate there have been 510 interim positive decisions and 711 final positive decisions, as well as 505 interim negative decisions and 224 final negative decisions.

Surely there cannot be 510 + 711 + 505 + 224 people on Manus – almost 2000 men, so some of the figures must be subsets of the others, but how?
Answer: As at 23 May 2017, of the 1019 Refugee Status Initial Assessment Notifications at Manus Island, 510 were positive and 509 were negative.

As at 23 May 2017, of the 955 Minister’s Final Determinations, 722 were positive and 233 were negative.

The greater number of positive Minister’s Final Determinations is due to a large number of negative assessments that were subsequently determined to be positive by the Minister of Papua New Guinea.
These figures are based on the total number of decisions rather than the number of persons.

As such, if an individual received both an initial assessment and final determination, they will be counted multiple times.