Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Immigration and Citizenship) Share this | Hansard source

I seek leave to amend the motion relating to the Select Committee on Australia's Immigration Detention Network in the terms circulated to honourable members.

Leave granted.

I move the motion as amended:

That:

(1) a Select Committee on the Crisis in Australia's Immigration Detention Network be appointed to inquire into and report on:

(a) the riots and disturbances in detention facilities on Christmas Island commencing 12 March 2011, and Villawood from 19 April 2011, in particular:

(i) the nature and circumstances of these events;

(ii) the nature and adequacy of the response of Commonwealth agencies to the events;

(iii) any warning, briefings or advice that had been provided to the Government by agencies and individuals in the lead up to, during and after the events and the nature and adequacy of the response to such information;

(iv) the adequacy of security protocols, procedures and resources to mitigate the escalation of tension and conflict in the detention network;

(v) the extent and cost of the damage to facilities as a result of the events; and

(vi) any other matter deemed relevant by the Committee to understand why these events occurred; and

(b) the performance and management of Commonwealth agencies and/or their agents or contractors in discharging their responsibilities associated with the interception, detention and processing of less irregular maritime arrivals or other persons;

(c) the resources, support and training for employees of Commonwealth agencies and/or their agents or contractors in performing their duties;

(d) the health, safety and wellbeing of employees of Commonwealth agencies and/or their agents or contractors in performing their duties relating to the interception, detention and processing of irregular maritime arrivals or other persons;

(e) the health, safety and wellbeing of asylum seekers and other persons, including specifically children, detained within the detention network;

(f) the level, adequacy and effectiveness of reporting incidents and the response to incidents within the immigration detention network, including relevant policies, procedures, authorities and protocols;

(g) compliance with the Government's immigration detention values within the detention network;

(h) any issues relating to interaction with States and Territories regarding the interception, detention and processing of irregular maritime arrivals or other persons;

(i) the management of good order and public order with respect to the immigration detention network;

(j) the impact of length of detention on and the appropriateness of facilities and services provided for detainees, including asylum seekers within the detention network;

(k) the total costs of managing and maintaining the immigration detention network and processing irregular maritime arrivals or other detainees;

(l) the expansion of the immigration detention network, including the cost and process adopted to establish new facilities;

(m) the length of time detainees have been held in the detention network, the reasons for their length of stay and the impact on the detention network;

(n) processes for assessment of protection claims made by irregular maritime arrivals and other persons and the impact on the detention network;

(o) the management and impact of detention on children and families, and viable alternatives;

(p) the cost, effectiveness and long term viability of outsourcing immigration detention centre contracts to provide providers and the policy alternatives;

(q) impact, effectiveness and cost of existing and prospective Government policies, including mandatory detention and any alternatives, including community release, with respect to irregular maritime arrivals and other persons detained within the detention network;

(r) any reforms needed to the current immigration detention network in Australia; and

(s) any other matters relevant to the above terms of reference.

(2) the Committee consist of 7 members, 3 Members to be nominated by the Government Whip or Whips, 3 Members to be nominated by the Opposition Whip or Whips, and 1 non-aligned member;

(3) the Committee may supplement its membership by up to four members, with a maximum of two extra Government and two extra opposition or non-aligned members. Supplementary members shall have the same participatory rights as other members, but may not vote;

(4) every nomination of a member of the Committee be notified in writing to the Speaker of the House of Representatives;

(5) the members of the Committee hold office as a select committee until presentation of the Committee's report or the House of Representatives is dissolved or expires by effluxion of time, whichever is the earlier;

(6) the Committee elect a Government or a non-government member as chair at its first meeting;

(7) the Committee elect a member as its deputy chair who shall act as chair of the Committee at any time when the chair is not present at a meeting of the Committee, and at any time when the chair and deputy chair are not present at a meeting of the Committee the members present shall elect another member to act as chair at that meeting;

(8) in the event of an equally divided vote, the chair, or the deputy chair when acting as chair, have a casting vote;

(9) 3 members of the Committee constitute a quorum of the Committee provided that in a deliberative meeting the quorum shall include 1 Government member and 1 non-Government member;

(10) the Committee have power to appoint subcommittees consisting of 3 or more of its members and to refer to any subcommittee any matter which the Committee is empowered to examine.;

(11) the Committee appoint the chair of each subcommittee who shall have a casting vote only and at any time when the chair of a subcommittee is not present at a meeting of the subcommittee the members of the subcommittee present shall elect another member of that subcommittee to act as chair at that meeting;

(12) 2 members of a subcommittee constitute the quorum of that subcommittee;

(13) members of the Committee who are not members of a subcommittee may participate in the proceedings of that subcommittee but shall not vote, move any motion or be counted for the purpose of a quorum;

(14) the Committee or any subcommittee have power to call for witnesses to attend and for documents to be produced;

(15) the Committee or any subcommittee may conduct proceedings at any place it sees fit;

(16) the Committee or any subcommittee have power to adjourn from time to time and to sit during any adjournment of the House of Representatives;

(17) the Committee may report from time to time but that it present its final report no later than 7 October 2011; and

(18) the provisions of this resolution, so far as they are inconsistent with the standing orders, have effect notwithstanding anything contained in the standing orders

Labor's denial and failure over three years has created chaos, cost and misery in our detention network. As I said earlier in this House, no-one will be more pleased than I if the boats stop but this will not erase the havoc caused by Labor and their denial and their failed policies. In November 2007 there were just four people who had arrived illegally by boat in our detention network. Under Labor that number has risen to over 6,500—almost double the peak that was recorded under the coalition government. Over the last several years we have seen a litany of chaos, abuse and cost blow-outs in this detention network, which defy imagination.

It was all started by this government's failure to address their own policy measures introduced to soften the border protection regime that they inherited from the coalition government. When they softened those laws, over 11,100 people came to our shores. We had an increase in our detention population, as I have mentioned, to over 6,800. The time spent in detention increased from just over 60 days to almost 180 days. More than 60 per cent of the people who are in our detention network now have been there for more than six months.

We have had incidents of abuse, not only amongst detainees, but in particular against those Australians who are working in those centres. There have been over 70 incidents and allegations of abuse have been levelled against those in detention centres in just this financial year alone.

This is a network that is in absolute crisis. It has been in a rolling crisis since there was what was reported as a bloody fight breaking out on 21 November 2009 on Christmas Island involving 150 Afghans and Sri Lankans. That matter was over a year ago, and we have seen chorus of incidents, from further rooftop protests on 20 to 22 September 2010, 90 detainees breaking out of the Northern Immigration Detention Facility in September of last year and, on 15 November a violent brawl at Broadmeadows. On 17 November there was a rooftop protest at Villawood and at the Airport Lodge between 7 to 10 February 1l people were hospitalised and a further 11 taken to the watch house after another disturbance and riot. On 27 and 28 February there was a riot at Christmas Island in the family compound, where 13 people were injured, windows were smashed, three asylum seekers were arrested and 15 young males were moved off the island. On 16 March there was a breakout at the Asti Motel.

On 17 March there was a protest at Curtin and also on 17 March a young Afghan man died at Sherga. On 28 March a 20 year-old Afghan asylum seeker died at the Curtin detention centre and on 12 and 13 March there were mass breakouts at Christmas Island followed by the horrendous riots which saw Commonwealth officers having to retake a Commonwealth facility by force. There were the Villawood riots that were proceeded by an improvised explosive device being found in that detention centre some four weeks before that whole area of the compound was torched—something the minister did not even know about. We have an average of more than three critical incidents of the types I have been referring to—of self-abuse, assaults and escapes—occurring in our detention network every single day. This is something that demands an inquiry of this House. The terms of reference I have circulated for that inquiry are there for all to see and go in some detail into the matters that we should be looking at. We should be looking at how the riots occurred and what steps were taken by the government to avoid them. We should be looking at the procedures in place in our detention network to ensure that staff are safe, can be catered for, can be looked after and can defend and protect themselves in the course of what can often be incredibly dangerous duties. There should be codes of conduct that are enforceable so that Serco officers and other Australians working in this environment can ensure good public order.

Australians were horrified and appalled by the behaviour we saw in our detention network over these last months. They were shaking their heads; many of them said, 'Enough is enough.' Enough is enough of the rolling crisis in our detention network and the government's attempt to not have these matters exposed to full public scrutiny.

There are also issues in the detention network around the welfare of those who are being held within detention itself. As I said, when the coalition government left office there were just four people in detention who had arrived by boat. That is how you avoid having more than three critical incidents every day in your detention network—when there is actually no-one in them. That is our objective. That is why we have always said we wanted to stop the boats, because when you do you do not have the havoc that is caused. I am amazed that the current government took almost three years to realise that their failed policies were the problem. Their policies were the reason that our detention network was filling up, causing the tension, the stress and the pressures that have led to this appalling series of incidents right across the detention network, including self-harm.

It took almost two years for the government to decide to use the powers that were created in 2005 in the Migration Act by the coalition government to enable children to be released into the community under residence determination orders. Why did it take so long? Why did it take so long for more than 1,000 children to be held within the detention network and not released into the community under residence determination orders? The minister has had that power ever since he took up his oath and the minister before him had that power when he took up his oath. But as 1,000 children got onto boats under this government's policies and made their way to our shores and into our detention network, where they have largely stayed till this day, this government sat there for almost two years and did absolutely nothing, not using any of the powers it had under the act to deal with this very serious issue.

Then, last year, they made this grand announcement implying that they would take children out from behind razor wire. They have not been behind razor wire since 2005, when just 59 children were in detention and were released into the community by the coalition government under the reforms that we made at that time.

All of these matters need to be ventilated. I do not seek to muzzle any member of this chamber—or in the other chamber if we sought to make this a joint parliamentary inquiry. It is important that we ask all the questions and put it all under the microscope, and that is why I gave my commitment to the crossbenchers and the Greens to amend the motion. All of the specific issues that they have asked to be raised in our discussions over the last week have now been included in the terms of reference for this inquiry. In my discussions with all of the crossbenchers whom I have had the opportunity to speak with personally, I have sought to include the matters they have raised in these terms of reference, because no member of this parliament should be muzzled in seeking to ask the questions and get the answers as to what is happening in our detention network.

In the motion before the House earlier today, we had debated the government's Malaysian five-for-one people swap. As I mentioned in my remarks on that matter, this is a deal which is fraught with difficulty, is far from completed and, most significantly, fails to provide the guarantees required under our Migration Act for the welfare of those people who will be sent to Malaysia under this arrangement.

When we consider these matters, it is important that we get the policies right. We will see whether the measure that the government is introducing stops the boats or not. We will wait. No-one will be happier than me if boats stop coming, but it has to be done the right way. The policies that the coalition put in place when we were in government not only stopped the boats but reduced the detention population of those who came by boat to just four. That is the outcome that we dearly seek.

So I implore members of this House to take up the opportunity for an inquiry that will be able to ask witnesses to give evidence in camera, to travel and to hear from people who have experience of the immigration network about how they work in and operate it and the resources and other things that they need; and to look into the cost, which has blown out to more than $3 billion over the last couple of years through the waste and mismanagement and failures of this government's policies. Whether the boats stop coming or not, the mess this government has created in our detention network is a national disgrace. It is a blight on our budget and it is a blight on our record for one simple reason: this government's policies failed. We need to have an inquiry to look into the mess it has created.

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