David Bradbury (Lindsay, Australian Labor Party, Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to support the Migration Legislation Amendment (Offshore Processing and Other Measures) Bill. Ours is a great country. It is a welcoming country, a warm-hearted country, but most significantly it is a country that has been built upon mass immigration. We are very fortunate to have one of the most successful and cohesive multicultural societies that the world has ever witnessed.

There is a number of important elements that have underpinned that very successful and cohesive multicultural society. I believe there are three elements that have underpinned the success of our society as a multicultural nation. Firstly, we are a generous people, but the control of people movements into our country has always been considered an important question of national sovereignty. Secondly, the power to do this, to exercise this control, has always been considered to be the prerogative of the government—the executive government. Thirdly, the exercise of such control has always been one of the most essential and the key ingredients of the very vibrant, non-discriminatory multicultural policy that we have. These not only are elements that are underpinning that which we as Australians hold dear but also are Labor values. That is why Gough Whitlam would, on the one hand, resist Vietnamese boat arrivals but, on the other, dismantle Australia's White Australia policy. That is why Bob Hawke embraced thousands of Chinese students post Tiananmen Square but resisted boat arrivals from Cambodia. That is why the Keating government could champion multiculturalism like no other government before it but, at the same time, introduce mandatory detention.

The question of control has been an important and an ongoing part of our immigration program. It is important because we believe that sovereignty is a key issue and that the very success of our multiculturalism relies upon us maintaining that control. When I look at the bill that is before the House I see that is very much consistent with these principles. Most significantly, it is about restoring the notion that control in these matters is within the hands of executive government. It should be the prerogative of executive government to determine the policies that are put in place in order to achieve that control and to maintain an orderly migration program. We all know that the High Court has taken a decision that overturned the position as we previously understood it. The opportunity now rests with this parliament to amend the law and to restore the position to that which was previously understood.

Much has been said in this debate from a number of members in their contributions about approaches that have been put in place in the past. There has been considerable attention to the efforts to manage the flow of people throughout the post-Vietnam War period. The flow of Indochinese people throughout our region and, indeed, in many cases to our shores was often held up as a great example of how these matters should be resolved. I think in some of this discussion people often misread or misrepresent what actually did occur back then. It is worth noting that at that time there were a number of boat arrivals to Australia. At that time people were accepted, processed and determined to be refugees. In total there were about 2,000 who came directly to Australia's shores by boat.

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