Bruce Scott (Maranoa, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise this afternoon to speak on this very important matter of public importance to do with this government’s failed immigration and border protection policies. I do so in the context of what happened in my own electorate last Friday. Last Friday I learned from a leak from the media that the department of immigration was looking at placing illegal arrivals in an unused mining camp—although there are still 30 people in it—at Dalby. This is because of the overflow from Christmas Island. There was no consultation with me or the community. There had been some very scant contact with the mayor, who I understand this afternoon is meeting with the department of immigration here in Canberra. I think he has been told that at this stage they do not have plans prepared to put people into Dalby. I emphasise ‘at this stage’. I suggest the minister will have the final say.

While the Dalby community was reacting to this news late last week, two more illegal boats arrived in our waters, which takes the total to 136 boats. The Rudd government’s policy on border protection has been a clear failure. Since this government changed the legislation in 2008 and softened Australia’s border protection, some 6,389 people have risked their lives to travel here in 136 dodgy boats. This year alone, 2010, some 3,354 people have arrived in some 68 leaky boats. Late last year, tragically, a boat disappeared with at least 100 people reportedly having died. And this is just one of the incidents that gets reported—what happens to the others who have taken this treacherous trip but have not made it? They have been utilising people-smuggling rackets in an effort to come to our shores because of the soft approach that this government has taken to protecting Australia’s borders. Quite clearly, when the Rudd government softened its policies it sent a message to the people smugglers of the world, and they are making money out of human misery. That is the problem with this policy.

Under the Howard government, the illegal, insidious trade of people smuggling was brought to a grinding halt. In November 2007, there were just two detainees on Christmas Island. The population now is at least 2,500. Look at the Howard government’s record. According to the World Refugee Survey conducted by the United States Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, the Rudd government resettled 25 per cent fewer refugees in 2009, some 8,742, than under the Howard government in 2007, which settled 12,133. So we clearly had a policy of showing compassion and playing our part, taking a humanitarian approach, in dealing with people who are in refugee camps around the world. I have been to some of these refugee camps, and your heart goes out to those people who are trying to find a country they can go to to get a better chance in life. I have seen them firsthand.

People on the weekend were making comments that Dalby is a racist and xenophobic community. I reject that absolutely. Many 457 visa workers have come to my electorate. I want to read into the record in the limited time available some information from Diesel Electrics, a small business in Dalby. They have two 457 employees, and until two weeks ago one man had not seen his wife and seven-year-old son for nearly two years. They have come to this country legally. They are educated and hardworking, and have also come from very desperate circumstances. They get no support and have to pay over $400 a month in private health insurance just to be here and to have access to medical facilities such as the Dalby hospital. The 457 visa approach has been working, and the current situation just does not seem fair to this person or to many other people in my community of Dalby. (Time expired)

See this speech in context