Bob McMullan (Fraser, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise with my colleagues to oppose the Migration Amendment (Designated Unauthorised Arrivals) Bill 2006. This legislation, notwithstanding some attempts to ameliorate it, cannot be saved. It shows clearly that the government never really believed in the reforms they proposed in 2005 to seek to accommodate the rebels in their midst. If anything proves that, it is the speech by the member for Blair which we have just heard. It is stunning. I know the member for Blair and I do not regard him as a bad man, but I do not know if he appreciates quite how callous those remarks that he just made were and the implications of them. I am not quite sure. He is implying, of course, that people deliberately put their children at risk to advance themselves in the queue not because they are in genuine fear but for self-advancement. He is implying that the legislation he voted for last year was appalling and unprincipled. The double standards are almost breathtaking.

It does not really matter what the member for Blair thinks—the member for Blair thinks whatever the government thinks. It matters that the government came in here preaching high virtues last year, saying: ‘We won’t incarcerate children. We won’t put people in circumstances where they lose the right to have their cases reviewed. We will no longer detain people indefinitely.’ It was applauded by me, amongst others, and I congratulated the member for Kooyong for it at the time as a step forward; but what we have now is a great leap backwards. It is the government saying, ‘We absolutely repudiate our 2005 reforms now in the face of pressure from international friends.’

I agree with the remarks made by those on this side, and some on the other side, who have called this bill profoundly disturbing and draconian in its implications. I hope that those who have spoken up from the government side can carry the burden of the pressure that is being put on them and I hope they can bring enough senators with them to defeat this bill. I know to some extent how they feel because I have been somewhat of a recalcitrant on this side—

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