Brendan O'Connor (Gorton, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Home Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

Could I say before I commence that I thank the Leader of the Opposition for remarking upon the need for us to have this debate calmly and dispassionately, because, firstly, we are dealing with very complex issues and, secondly, we are dealing with human beings. But we do not resile from the fact that the Rudd government has very strong border protection. That is why we dedicated more resources than ever before to providing extra aerial and maritime surveillance within the region. We now provide more AFP resources in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Malaysia and other countries within the region in order to focus our attention on the criminal organised syndicates that are willing to exploit desperate people in many circumstances who seek haven in First World countries. Therefore it is important that we ensure, by working closely with our friends in the region, that we dismantle those organised syndicates and that we do not place desperate people in a situation where they are enticed onto vessels and perilous journeys.

Clearly there is a different view between the government and the opposition on this matter. The government is of the view that the primary reason for the increase in the number of people seeking haven in First World countries, including Australia, is because of the increases in conflicts very recently. Firstly, it is important to note that there have been irregular arrivals to this country in each of the last 20 years. I think we also agree that there have been surges from time to time. The largest surges were in 1999, 2000 and 2001. Then there was an abatement of such arrivals. We have seen a smaller but not insignificant surge recently. We believe that the facts lay bare the assertions by the opposition that this is about pull factors. The facts are that the Sri Lankan civil war, which has been long and bloody, concluded this year, which of course has led to the significant displacement of hundreds of thousands of people within that country.

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