On 17 June, Prime Minister John Howard announced a shift in that policy, allowing families in detention with children to enter the community and ensuring that long-term detainees would have their cases reviewed regularly.

On 11 August 2006, Georgiou joined Russell Broadbent and Judi Moylan in crossing the floor to vote against the Migration Amendment (Designated Unauthorised Arrivals) Bill, that would force all asylum seekers to be processed offshore.

In March 2006, Josh Frydenberg, an investment banker and former political adviser, made known his intention to challenge Georgiou for his seat in an internal Liberal Party preselection.

[3] In the days leading to the preselection convention, Queensland frontbenchers Ian Macfarlane, Peter Dutton and Santo Santoro backed Frydenberg's credentials, to the dismay of former premier Jeff Kennett.

[7] He was the first member for this blue-ribbon Liberal seat in more than a century to spend his entire career on the backbench; since 1910, all of his predecessors had served long spells as either cabinet ministers or opposition frontbenchers.