Nola Marino (Forrest, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Anti-People Smuggling and Other Measures Bill 2010, which aims to deter people smuggling, to expand ASIO’s charter to include border security issues and to make related amendments to the Telecommunications Intercept and Access Act 1979. I must say at the outset that it is patently clear that the need to engage ASIO to combat people smuggling comes as a direct result of the Rudd government’s weakening of Australia’s border protection laws. The explanatory memorandum of the bill notes:

The Bill will put in place laws to provide greater deterrence of people smuggling activity and to address the serious consequences of such activity. The Bill will also provide greater capacity for Australian Government agencies to investigate and disrupt people smuggling networks.

This need, as I said, has been created by the Labor government’s changes to border protection laws and by policy failures. The scrapping of offshore processing at Nauru, the scrapping of temporary visas and the abandoning of the practice of getting the Australian Navy to tow boats back to Indonesia before they arrived in Australian territorial waters, unfortunately, all sent a very clear message to human traffickers: they were well and truly back in business in Australia. Clearly there is a belief that the chances of successful entry to Australia are high; otherwise, we would not see those seeking illegal entry arriving almost on a daily, if not weekly, basis now.

People in my electorate of Forrest are very well aware of the direct connection between the Labor government’s softening of Australia’s border protection laws in August 2008 and the surge of people-smuggling activity. I have two constituents of mine in my office as we speak; I acknowledge Adele and Murray and welcome them to Parliament House. My constituents and many other Australians are angry that the Labor government’s weakened border protection has destroyed Australia’s international reputation for strong border protection, seriously compromised immigration control and created possible quarantine and biosecurity issues. I know these are of concern in my electorate because of issues such as the potential for foot-and-mouth disease, typhoid and tuberculosis.

Increasing numbers of my constituents contact my office, and they are very concerned about the Labor government’s inaction on people smuggling. If the government decides to transfer detainees from Christmas Island to Darwin and the processing of people to mainland Australia, I am concerned that this will simply encourage more boat arrivals and make my constituents even angrier. My constituents, like most other Australians, have an expectation of strong border security from all Australian governments—the very type of strong border security and border control that was provided by the coalition government during its time in office. We had the problem under control.

We have seen a constant stream of boat arrivals since the changes to the legislation. As I said, it is now almost becoming a daily, if not weekly, event. From August 2008 to date, 92 boats carrying over 4,000 passengers and crew members have arrived on Australian shores—many off the Western Australian coast. In this year alone we have had 24 boats with almost 2,100 people illegally arrive in just 10 weeks, at a rate of nine boats per month. These figures clearly indicate that the Labor government has totally lost control of Australia’s borders and asylum seeker intake.

Whilst in government, as I said, the coalition had virtually eliminated the people-smuggling trade—and this is a deadly trade. There were years when no boats arrived on our shores. Between 2004 and 2007, just 12 unauthorised boats carrying 194 people arrived on Australian shores. There were 194 unauthorised people under the Liberal government compared to the over 4,000 we have under the Labor government, with over 3,086 of those arriving on board 67 boats in the last financial year alone. These figures speak for themselves. When will the Labor government accept responsibility and admit that they have actively encouraged people smugglers through their changes to border protection laws? It appears that perhaps this bill is just the first forced admission that their policies have in fact encouraged this people-smuggling activity. When the coalition was in government we had a relationship with Indonesia which enabled us to deal with the boats as they arrived and, as I said, return them to Indonesia before they reached Australia. On at least four occasions, boats were returned to within close range of the Indonesian coast.

The Labor government abolished this provision and their current policy actively encourages people to risk their lives during dangerous sea voyages in unseaworthy boats, while making people smugglers very rich from their trade. The human traffickers are organised. They have obviously been rubbing their hands as the money has rolled in since the changes to border protection. They are delivering a product which is, in effect, informal immigration to Australia.

What about the human toll? Will we ever actually know just how many desperate people have lost their lives attempting to illegally enter Australia in those leaking and unseaworthy boats? We have seen repeatedly where passengers on board such boats have literally had to be rescued and those who were sent on the final leg of their journey without experienced crew. We have seen report after report of those who have died trying to get to Australia. We have seen asylum seekers who have set their boats on fire or sabotaged their boats, and this has also put our Navy personnel at serious risk. Unfortunately, by the very law of averages, the more boats that set out, the more fatalities there will be.

We know that Australia has one of the most generous programs of refugee and humanitarian settlement in the world. Humanitarian cases admitted to Australia under the coalition government were the highest of any government in our postwar history and we continue to have one of the highest numbers of residents in this country who were born overseas. But we have seen the Department of Immigration and Citizenship being constrained by budget cuts as well during this time and the government is now also facing the challenge of finding more beds in facilities to house the record numbers of unauthorised arrivals. This is in spite of the Christmas Island facility being labelled as a white elephant by members of the government. It has since become a tent city as well as that white elephant. Quite simply, Australia’s border and immigration control is in crisis as a direct result of Labor’s policy changes.

We have heard much about push factors. I note that asylum seeker applications in the UK, Canada and the US have declined, but in Australia they have increased by 30 per cent at the same time as the UK declined by 30 per cent. In an Australian Financial Review article on 8 March 2010, the Western Australian Liberal Premier criticised the federal government’s handling of asylum seekers, saying that it needed to toughen its approach. Premier Barnett said:

It (concerns me) and I think it concerns all Australians that we are seeing increasing numbers of boat people coming at great risk to themselves and it is putting pressure on our security.

This is the same Premier who was roundly condemned when he exposed the risk to Australian Navy personnel. As I said previously, instead of dealing with the failure of policy it appears the government is implementing plans to begin transferring detainees from Christmas Island to Darwin before asylum claims have been assessed, effectively ending universal offshore processing. If previous changes to border protection gave a clear green light—and perhaps green dollar signs—to human traffickers, then onshore processing will really be a dead-set, gold-lettered priority invitation to come directly into Australia that people smugglers can sell to their clients.

It will also raise legal issues, potential endless appeals and serious additional costs for Australian taxpayers. I note that the Refugee Review Tribunal reported an increase of 11 per cent in its case load for 2008-09. The appeals process is of course used by asylum seekers who wish to appeal against a decision by the immigration department. Trends in those figures will become apparent when the ever-growing number of asylum seekers becomes a formal part of the system and when they are processed on Australian soil—simply reinforcing why it is so important that refugee status claims are made offshore. I note that the coalition believes further transfers are imminent, and this will continuously erode our border security.

As I said earlier, people smugglers would have an even more attractive selling tool, and they would be actively marketing. We heard from the previous speaker about organised crime involved in this field. They will be marketing the fact that their clients could get all the way to the Australian mainland. I can only imagine how that would increase their profits but also increase the risk for the people involved.

Offshore processing was one of the key factors which led to bringing illegal boat numbers down to zero under the previous coalition government. In the May budget the Rudd government allocated $125 million for offshore processing. However, the government is now spending an additional estimated $132 million for this work, an increase of over 100 per cent. Should this surge in numbers continue, taxpayers will continue to pay for this process. As well, under this bill ASIO will be required to have additional funding to expand its operational jurisdiction to include border security. No doubt Senate estimates will actually detail this as an additional budget requirement in the next session.

The government’s special treatment of asylum seekers on the Oceanic Viking also sent very attractive signals to people smugglers. We have seen that proven, because over 40 boats have arrived since the Oceanic Viking’s special deal of resettlement within four to six weeks as well as a range of other concessions, all of which the Prime Minister failed to admit were part of what really was a special deal.

This legislation will make a number of amendments, such as increasing the sanctions applicable to people-smuggling, including the protection of Australia’s territorial and border integrity from serious threats within ASIO’s statutory charter and including people-smuggling within the definition of a serious offence, thus permitting the use of these tools to investigate allegations of people smuggling and aligning the definition of foreign intelligence in the T(IA) Act with the definition in the Intelligence Services Act 2001.

The coalition considered it extremely sensible to include threats to Australia’s border integrity within the ASIO charter. The increased penalties and expanded security agency power, however, have been made necessary because of the changes to policy that created a renewed market and an opportunity for people-smuggling. People smugglers, human traffickers, knew and know that the Labor government softened Australia’s border protection laws and have taken and are taking full advantage of that situation, which compromises Australia’s reputation for strong border protection and immigration control, as well as potentially compromising the fairness and integrity of our immigration and refugee programs.

We take approximately 13½ thousand refugees on this type of program. Therefore, everyone who arrives illegally by boat takes the place of someone with a genuine need, genuine refugees in a waiting line who are applying through the processes of the government and the United Nations. Given this, the coalition is supportive of this legislation and its aims to deter people-smuggling, to expand ASIO’s charter and to make related amendments to the Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Act 1979. I support this legislation.

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