Shayne Neumann (Blair, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I speak in support of the Anti-People Smuggling and Other Measures Bill 2010. I was only elected to this place in November 2007, and that was truly one of the most odd and strange speeches I have heard since my election. The evidence was simply not proffered for the assertions which were made. No evidence was given in relation to funding. The speaker tritely dismissed the evidence of the UNHCR, tritely dismissed the facts and the global pressures, tritely dismissed the fact that the bill that is before the House was never even contemplated by the Howard coalition government when it was in office. He said, ‘We will support this piece of legislation, but the Rudd government has legislative rigor mortis’. Then why support this legislation? He did not speak to the bill, but will support it and did not acknowledge the fact that the legislation strengthens what we are doing in relation to people smuggling and does not acknowledge at all that we have put huge amounts of resources into combating people smuggling. He asked, ‘Have you ever been there?’ Yes, I have been to Indonesia and spoken to the Australian Federal Police there. During a parliamentary delegation I spoke to the Minister of Defence, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, the President of Indonesia and the Indonesian authorities—the military and security over there—and they are working in close cooperation with the Australian government. The two governments are working in tandem to eradicate this pernicious trade in humanity.

People smuggling is wicked. It preys on the vulnerabilities of people. What we will do is criminalise behaviour which the previous government never thought of doing. We are backing up what we are doing with real money—it is budgeted and on the table. We have done that. We are taking steps with Indonesians through the Lombok Treaty and other arrangements with the Indonesian authorities. The previous government claims we are doing nothing: it is nonsense. What they are saying in relation to this is absolute rubbish.

Did the previous government, as this legislation does, establish a new offence of providing support for people smuggling in the Migration Act 1958 and the Criminal Code? The answer is no; they did not do it at all. (Quorum formed) Did the previous coalition government harmonise people-smuggling offences between the Migration Act and the Criminal Code to strengthen the criminal framework? The answer is no. Did they extend the mandatory minimum penalties in the Migration Act to the new aggravated offence involving exploitation or danger of death or serious harm and to offenders convicted of multiple offences? The answer is no. Did they make associated changes to the Surveillance Devices Act and the Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Act to enable law enforcement and security agencies to have consistent access under both acts to the appropriate investigative tools? The answer is no. Did they amend the ASIO Act to enable ASIO to perform a greater role in relation to people smuggling and other serious threats to Australia’s territorial and border integrity? The answer is no. Consistently they did not. So it is all rhetoric over there, not backed up by a legislative framework. The only thing they thought they might do was to do a bit of excision and put a Pacific solution there, a complete and utter failure—$289 million worth of failure. That is the reality.

What did we do? For the benefit of the member for Bowman—who needs to go into those pubs again, have a bit of a chat and get a bit of evidence—I am going to give him a few facts. I will just talk about what we are doing, because he thinks we are doing nothing in Sri Lanka and in those areas and are not working with the Sri Lankans, the Malaysians and the Indonesians. We have provided $35 million in development assistance to Sri Lanka in the last year. We have provided $5 million to support resettlement of internally displaced persons and $2.3 million for demining in the former conflict areas. I do not know whether the member for Bowman knew at all, but there was a civil war over there in places like that. With respect to resettlement of international displaced persons, I would just like him to be aware of the fact that, according to the United Nations, we have tens of millions of people who are displaced throughout the world. Those are the consequences of wars and conflicts in the Middle East and in Asia, including South-East Asia. I do not know where he thinks it is.

For the tories over there, it is always about fear and not about facts. That is what they live and breathe and exist on: fear. That is the way they campaign, that is the way they legislate and that is the way they speak in this House: ‘Don’t give them the facts; don’t give us the facts; don’t give the Australian public the facts. Just campaign, assert and allege fear. Induce it, thrive on it and actually cultivate it.’ That is what they are about.

Let me give the member for Bowman a few facts—through you, Madam Deputy Speaker. We have established a dedicated border protection committee of cabinet. Did those opposite do it? No. We have increased maritime surveillance and patrols by the Border Protection Command. Did they do it? The answer is no. We have committed $654 million to a strategy to combat people smuggling, far more than the coalition ever put in. Did they match it when they were in power? The answer is no. That is part, of course, of a $1.3 billion strategy to strengthen our national security and border protection. They did not commit $63 million to aerial surveillance at all. We have increased the funding. We have also increased funding to the Australian Federal Police—$42 million—and we have increased our cooperation with the Indonesian police in relation to investigation and dismantling of the people-smuggling syndicates.

The coalition members can come in here, rant and rave on these matters and allege all kinds of things, but how about a bit of honesty and truth? How about a bit of reality about what is really happening across the world and acknowledgement that we are doing things? On 4 December, 2008—I do not know where the member for Bowman was—the Prime Minister, the Hon. Kevin Rudd, delivered the government’s first national security statement to parliament, setting out the national security reform agenda. I would recommend—through you, Madam Deputy Speaker—that the member for Bowman go and have a look at that speech, because I was very impressed by what the government was proposing to do in that regard: strengthening border protection and increasing coordination between government agencies. It is extremely important that we support the AFP and the People Smuggling Strike Team that we have established. We have allocated more money and more resources—we did this in the 2009-10 budget—to combat people smuggling and strengthen border protection than any government previously.

We have heard the mythology from those opposite. They talk about what is happening around the world and how it was all to do with the fact that, all around Asia and the Middle East, people were focusing on that prime ministerial suite and the Hon. John Howard. In that suite down the corridor, there he was and they were all looking at him. When he decided, ‘We’re going to toughen our border protection policies,’ they all magically, mysteriously and mystically bowed down at his feet and said: ‘Oh, John. Prime Minister Howard, we are not going to do that because we fear you. We are going to stay away.’ That is just nonsense—absolute arrant nonsense.

The UNHCR has said it. There are 42 million displaced people around the world. That is why they were, and are, coming to these shores and who would not want to come to the best country in the world? If you were in despair and homeless, with war, pestilence and disease around you, why would you not want to come to a western country, a great country like Australia? If you are desperate, you will do anything. You will pay the criminal syndicates anything you can to get there. What we have to do is give resources at the source, as we are doing and as we did in the last budget, as I said. We are working with the Malaysian government, the Indonesian government and the Sri Lankan government.

According to the UNHCR, of the 42 million who are currently displaced around the world, 16 million are refugees and asylum seekers. Anyone with an ounce of compassion would have their heart bleeding for these people, given what they are going through. We are so fortunate in this country, with roofs over our heads, food in our bellies, employment for most Australians and a way of life which is the envy of the world. There are 26 million people displaced within their own countries, according to the UNHCR. They are the facts. That is what is happening—it is the push factors throughout the world. It is not because of legislative changes here. We are toughening up our border protection with legislative changes. We are putting real money on the table, putting real police on the beat. We are working with our partners. Those are the facts.

We hear the mythology from those opposite, who come into this place time and again, and talk about their ‘Pacific solution’ and how it caused a decrease in boat arrivals. It is not true. It is simply not true. Their immigration policy did not result in what they claim. The truth is that we saw an abatement of refugees and asylum seekers around the world in those times. The facts are quite clear. It is like the issue of the temporary protection visas. My understanding is that the opposition supported what we were doing initially but then, for political reasons—campaigning once again on fear—they decided that they would do a backflip. They had a road to Damascus conversion and went back to their old ways.

When we announced the abolition of temporary protection visas for asylum seekers on 13 May 2008, as part of the 2008-09 budget, I was pleased. I thought it was the right thing to do. The coalition has come up with all kinds of mealy-mouthed words about what they will do if they get in, but the TPVs did not stop the boats coming here. In the four years from December 1997 to November 2001, there were a total of 12,651 unauthorised boat arrivals. The Prime Minister, in question time today, set out that the highest number of boats which came to Australia in the last decade or so, and the highest number of asylum seekers, was on the previous government’s watch.

And what happened when the people came to this country? By the time that TPVs were abolished last year, nearly 90 per cent of the people initially granted a TPV had been granted a permanent protection visa or another visa to remain in Australia. There were 11,206 people granted TPVs and, of these, 9,841 had already been granted a permanent protection visa or another visa. The previous government’s policy simply failed. It failed outright. What is their solution? Do they really want to go back to putting women and children behind barbed wire again? Is that what they want to do? What sort of decent, humane country does that? That is not the solution. The solution is to work with our neighbours across Asia. The solution is to beef up our border protection with cops on the beat. The solution is to put real money on the table to support our position. That is what the solution is—not to campaign on fear and not to campaign the way the opposition are campaigning.

I support this legislation. I think it will make a difference. It is something that the Howard government did not have the wit or wisdom to do when they were in power. It is not legislative rigor mortis; it is real reform. It is a real attempt to make the situation better and I commend the legislation to the House and I commend the Prime Minister’s national security speech to the member for Bowman.

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