Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Banks for his question. The Australian government is working hard with our regional neighbours to combat the challenge of people-smuggling. Our regional neighbours, like us, recognise that there are no easy options in tackling this challenge. For all countries these are tough challenges; they are not easy challenges. Our policy, as I said to those opposite just before, is unapologetically tough when it comes to people smugglers and unapologetically humane when it comes to dealing with asylum seekers. It is a tough but humane approach.

The risks on the high seas are too great, the tragedy of disasters too high and the incentives for people smugglers too great not to attempt to reduce the number of boats leaving Indonesia or other countries. We, the government, make no apology for this regional approach. The truth is that people impacted by such a policy will not support it. It will not be praised by all Australians—it is not praised by all Australians. Asylum seekers do not want to settle in Indonesia, nor do they wish to be processed in Indonesia, but no-one wants to see a repeat of the tragedies on the high seas that we have seen in times past, no-one wants to see a repeat of the sinkings and the drownings that we have seen in the past and no-one wants to encourage people smugglers to put the lives of innocent people at risk. That is why we must do all we credibly can to reduce the number of boats that are leaving regional countries.

If detention and processing in Indonesia help prevent some of these perilous journeys then we must support such a policy. We must continue working with Indonesia, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, and the International Organisation for Migration to improve facilities in Indonesia and the speed with which asylum seekers’ applications are processed. If asylum seekers processed in Indonesia are found to be genuine refugees then Australia, as previous Australian governments have done, together with other countries around the world, will continue to assist with the resettlement of such refugees. We must also continue to cooperate with Indonesia and other regional neighbours to do whatever is possible to prevent people-smuggling operations before they begin. Our policy objectives are clear cut—to deter people smugglers, in cooperation with regional partners, and to reduce the number of people who put their lives at risk in the hands of people smugglers.

This morning I returned from the East Asia Summit, where again government leaders from around the world and around our region recognised that this in fact is a transnational challenge. The summit communique released yesterday said:

We—

the 16 governments of the East Asia Summit—

reaffirmed our commitment to combat people smuggling and trafficking in persons. We stressed the importance of continued bilateral and regional cooperative efforts, including through the Bali Process on People Smuggling, Trafficking in Persons and Related Transnational Crime, to address the impact of these and other transnational crimes.

Our regional partners and friends in east Asia recognise that this is a global problem. It is a regional problem. Forty-two million displaced people around the world, including 15.2 million who are refugees, and the increases in Iraqi, Afghan and Sri Lankan outflows over the last three years, has gone up respectively in the vicinity of 75, 100, 150 to nearly 200 per cent. We have also had this challenge in transit countries.

I note from some of the commentary that has been around of late that there is somehow a suggestion that Australian support for Indonesian efforts in this area—including in the processing facilities within Indonesia—is somehow a new initiative on the part of this government. For the information of the House, the Howard government launched initiatives to provide around $25 million for capacity-building initiatives in Indonesia over the last five years, including the refurbishment of detention facilities in Indonesia through the IOM, two Indonesian detention facilities at Tanjung Pinang and Jakarta, and for the training of Indonesian officials. It was also for the establishment of a network of IOM outreach officers to assist Indonesian authorities to monitor and manage a regular migration flow—some $2.6 million.

Furthermore, since 1999 Australian governments have provided $34.7 million to support humanitarian assistance in Indonesia, including accommodation, food and medical assistance for irregular migrants to Indonesia intercepted en route to Australia. For some to suggest that this is somehow a new departure in policy I think does not reflect accurately upon the historical record. This government’s policy, as I have said before, seeks to take a hard-line approach with people smugglers and seeks to adopt a humane approach with asylum seekers. It is the balanced approach adopted by mainstream governments around the world. We have also invested a record amount in surveillance and interception. There was some $654 million additionally announced in the last budget and in 2008-09 the total number of flying hours and sea days undertaken by vessels and aircraft—conducting surveillance in our northern waters—was more than in the previous year, with the number of sea days in 2008-09 being 25 per cent more than 2005-06. Our policy is also unapologetically humane. We have ended mandatory detention for children. Some opposite seemed to be calling for its return. We have abolished the failed temporary protection visas. Some opposite seem to be advocating its return. We have scrapped the so-called Pacific solution. Now those opposite, it seems, advocate its return.

In the period that the government has been in, we have had some 85 disruptions of planned smuggling adventures since September 2008, involving nearly 2,000 persons. That has been with the assistance of the Indonesian national police. The government has already returned almost 100 people because their asylum claims have been refused. Since September 2008, 15 people have been convicted in Australian courts and eight separate people are facing people-smuggling prosecutions. Further, currently before the Australian courts are 38 defendants in 14 separate matters, with three defendants in three separate matters involving organisers and facilitators. This is the practical action which goes to a practical and balanced policy on dealing with the scourge of people smugglers and the humanitarian plight of asylum seekers. It is a balanced approach, a mainstream approach; one which unapologetically also engages our friends and partners in the region, as previous Australian governments—were they to honestly reflect—have done as well.

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