Chris Bowen (McMahon, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Immigration and Citizenship) Share this | Hansard source

He knows that this policy could break the people smugglers' business model. He knows that this policy says, 'If you get on a boat in Malaysia, take a boat to Indonesia, get another boat to Australia'—as the majority of asylum seekers who arrive by boat do on that journey from the Middle East—'then you will be taken back to Malaysia where you started the boat journey.' The question that asylum seekers and people smugglers would have to ask themselves is, 'Why would I pay the money and risk my life to be returned to where I began that boat journey?' That is why this proposal from the government breaks the people smugglers' business model in a way that no action taken by the Liberal Party ever did when they were in office. Nothing the Liberal Party did when they were in office could remove the guarantee of being resettled in Australia.

If you ask the Liberal Party about a problem, they will say the answer is Nauru. But the opposition had the chance—again, 15 minutes—to answer some fundamental questions on Nauru. We will come back to that. Again, we saw those questions unanswered. The opposition have said for years that Nauru is the answer, but they have not provided any details or substance to that. What we saw is more hypocrisy from the shadow minister for immigration.

Let us go through the hypocrisy, because there are several elements to it. Firstly, the Leader of the Opposition and the shadow minister say: 'It is outrageous that we would take 4,000 people out of Malaysia. It is unfair. Why would we take so many refugees from Malaysia?' The Leader of the Opposition said in this House at the dispatch box last week:

The problem with the Prime Minister's people swap with Malaysia is that it is unfair to our country. Why should we take five times the number from Malaysia that they are taking from us? It is unfair and it is costly.

That is the view of the opposition—we are taking too many refugees from Malaysia. They think it is bad; they think it is unfair. We would say that it is unfair not to. We are proud of the fact that we are taking 4,000 refugees from Malaysia who have been mandated by the UNHCR and who have been waiting patiently for resettlement, in many cases, over many years. Asylum seekers in Malaysia do face difficult situations. So why are the shadow minister and the Leader of the Opposition so opposed to taking 4,000 genuine refugees from Malaysia?

Let us get to the second element of my honourable friend's hypocrisy. The honourable member for Cook has the policy—I think this is still the policy—that they would turn back the boats.

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