Michael Keenan (Stirling, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Justice, Customs and Border Protection) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to support this motion moved by the member for Cook. If the member for Chifley, the government member who just spoke on this motion, is the sum total of the government's defence as to why this parliament should not look into the government's detention network debacle, I hope that this parliament can see through such transparently naive and, quite frankly, petty and silly arguments.

We are sent here to this parliament to do many things in representing our constituents but, very importantly, this parliament should hold the executive to account. This is what this motion is really about. It is framed around the detention network, but the decision this parliament makes on it will be about what role the parliament should legitimately play. And it is vital that this parliament hold the executive to account on this issue.

This is a parliament that was supposed to be different. This is a parliament that was supposed to be more muscular and was going to assert its independence from the executive. The Labor Party when they came into government were going to 'allow sunlight in on government decisions'; yet we just heard the one contribution to this debate from the government slamming the reasons that we should have this detention network inquiry.

Our detention network does need parliamentary scrutiny. It has been gripped by a rolling crisis that culminated in March and April this year with the riots and the violent incidences that we saw at Christmas Island and Villawood. A lot has been said about those riots but beyond those we know that there are three critical incidents a day within our detention network. These can range from assaults on officers through to self-harm, riots, the setting of fires, homemade bombs and, sadly, even deaths. The incident of the improvised explosive device at Villawood was not even considered important enough to report to the minister—who was notified on talkback radio about what was occurring within his own network.

There has been a collapse of our detention network, and it is not the result of bad luck or happenstance and it is certainly not the result of international conditions; it is the direct result of failed government policies. When the Labor Party came to office there were four people in our detention network who had arrived illegally by boat. Then Labor took these fateful decisions in August 2008 that resulted in the people-smuggling model being reinvigorated. And, of course, we know what has happened since then: 227 illegal boat arrivals carrying over 11,000 people. Julia Gillard as Prime Minister has presided over 86 boat arrivals and over 4,800 people being smuggled here illegally.

If the government could kill the people-smuggling model and show some resolve and do something to stop these arrivals, we would not have the need for this inquiry into our detention network. Because there has been this massive influx of people and a massive expansion of the network, we have had the situation where people have been detained for much longer as government agencies struggle to deal with the consequences of Labor's failure. Because is it so hard to process such a large number of people, 60 per cent of detainees have now been detained for over six months. Average processing time has blown out from 61 days to over 170 days. Taxpayers' money has been squandered at an astonishing rate. An extra $3 million of taxpayers' money has been expended on our detention network. If these are not things that this parliament should be looking into, it is hard to imagine what MPs are doing here.

We need to know what happened at Christmas Island; we need to know what happened at Villawood; we need to know what is happening in an ongoing way within our detention network; we need to know what can be done better; and we need to understand how our detention network got to this stage in the first place and what the government's plans are to do something about it. When you are seeing Commonwealth property destroyed, taxpayers' money squandered, Commonwealth employees assaulted, criminal acts committed, explosive devices being detected, mass breakouts, suicides and self-harm—and when you are seeing all this as a direct result of the failure of government policy—this parliament must take action. I urge all members to support this motion.

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