Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Hansard source

This is important legislation, let us be in no doubt about that. Let us also be in no doubt that this is not so much about offshore processing but, fundamentally, about a lifeline for a stubborn Prime Minister who has long been in denial about the one policy which has been proven to work when it comes to stopping the boats.

There is only one party that is preventing offshore processing in this country and that is the government, which closed down offshore processing in 2008. There is only one party which has obstructed Australia from processing boat people offshore and that is the government, which has not processed a single boat person offshore since it closed down offshore processing in 2008. This is a government that could have had offshore processing at any time if the Prime Minister had been prepared to swallow her pride and pick up the phone to the President of Nauru. This is a government that could have offshore processing today if it were prepared to accept the opposition's amendment, an amendment which will secure offshore processing and will also secure offshore protections, because while we need offshore processing—let there be no doubt about that—a decent country also puts in place decent protections for people who are sent from this country to another one.

Let there be absolutely no doubt about where the coalition stands on offshore processing. We support offshore processing. We invented offshore processing. We have the patent on offshore processing. But I'll tell you what, Mr Deputy Speaker, it was never offshore dumping. We specifically amended the Migration Act back in 2001 to ensure that the minister, the government—the country, in effect—had a responsibility to ensure that people who had come into our care and who left our country were properly looked after.

There is another question which is, in effect, before the parliament today. It is: who do you trust, who does this parliament trust and who does this country trust to stop the boats? Do you trust the party—the coalition—that did stop the boats or do you trust the party—the government—that started them up again? That is the fundamental question before this parliament and before this country. This is a coalition which has a very strong record when it comes to border protection. This is a coalition which has been totally consistent for more than a decade. That is a government, over there, which over the last few years has had every single imaginable policy, except the one that has actually worked.

Do you trust a coalition that has had a clear and consistent policy on this for a decade, a policy that has worked, or do you trust a government, a Labor Party, that has every policy except the one that would actually stop the boats?

This bill from the government is essentially about its Malaysia people swap. I want to make three points about the Malaysia people swap. First, it is a bad deal; second, it is a cruel deal; and third, it is a dud deal. It is a bad deal because no serious, competent, self-respecting government would go to another country and offer a deal on such disadvantageous terms to itself. No serious, self-respecting country would allow itself to be a dumping ground for other countries' problems—and yet that is what this desperate Prime Minister has done. No decent country would expose people who once had its protection to the kind of treatment that they would get in Malaysia.

I want to be absolutely crystal clear about this. Malaysia is a friend of Australia's. Malaysia is an ally of Australia's. But their standards are not our standards. I make no comment on their standards other than to say that they are different from ours and our responsibility with the people who have come into our care is to ensure that the standards they are going to are acceptable to us, not merely acceptable to others.

The Malaysia swap is a dud deal because it has simply not worked. Since the Malaysia people swap was announced we have had more than 1,000 illegal arrivals. Since it was signed we have had 400 illegal arrivals. That is 1,000 reasons why this deal will not work and it is 1,000 reasons why the policies of the coalition—which have been proven to work—are better for the Australian people.

Let us review the history of this whole business. Back in 2001 Australia had a problem, a very serious problem of border protection. It was not easy for the Howard government. Everything the Howard government did was ferociously attacked by, among others, members opposite. We were cruel, we were brutal and we were racist! That is what they said about us. But we put a series of policies in place that did stop the boats. There were three elements to our policy: Nauru, temporary protection visas and turning boats around where it was safe to do so. From that time to this the policy of the coalition has been absolutely consistent and absolutely clear. And it worked.

From 2002 until 2007 there were fewer than three boats a year. The policies that we put in place worked. Then there was a change of government, a change of government to people who thought they knew better and a change of government to people who thought that they were so good, so competent, that they did not need to leave well enough alone. In fact, we had the then minister for immigration say that the day that the Pacific solution was formally dismantled was the proudest day of his life.

I wonder how proud he feels now, given that, since then, we have had 241 boats and 12,000 illegal arrivals. But we have not just had the boats and the arrivals; we have had the deaths, we have had the riots and we have had the suffering. I do not blame everything that has happened since on the government. That would be unfair. The government did not intend, and did not cause, all of the tragedies which have flowed from this terrible mistake. But a terrible mistake it was. Yet, at any time, they could have reopened Nauru. At any time they could have put back in place temporary protection visas and at any time they could have talked to the Indonesians about reinstituting the sorts of informal arrangements which allow boats to be turned around.

The problem is that this government has had every policy on this subject but none has ever worked. On temporary protection visas, the Prime Minister has been for them and against them. On turning boats around, she has been for it and she has been against it, and now she wants to do it again—as long as it is a virtual turnaround. On offshore processing, she was against it and now she is for it.

On the question of the United Nations convention, first it was absolutely essential that people only be sent offshore to countries that had signed the refugee convention and then it was just the merest scrap of paper—it did not matter at all. The Prime Minister has had every policy except one that worked. She supported everything because she believes in nothing. It is worth quoting the words of the Prime Minister; they should be on the record in this parliament. On turning boats around, Gillard said in a press conference on 3 December 2002:

The Navy has turned back four boats to Indonesia … It has made a very big difference … It has disrupted people-smuggling operations tremendously … We think that it is important … that we do everything we can to disrupt people-smuggling. And we think turning boats around that are seaworthy, that can make the return journey, and are in international waters, fits in with that.

That was what the Prime Minister said then. Then, last year, she said turning around the boats is some kind of a joke. On offshore processing, on the Pacific solution, in this very House on 13 May 2003, she said

Labor will end the so-called Pacific solution—the processing and detaining of asylum seekers on Pacific islands—because it is costly, unsustainable and wrong as a matter of principle.

Well, since then, there has hardly been a Pacific island that she has not turned to to beg them to take boat people from Australia. On temporary protection visas, Julia Gillard said in a press conference on 3 December 2002:

… Labor’s policy, is that a unauthorised arrival who does have a genuine refugee claim would in the first instance get a short Temporary Protection Visa.

Really and truly, this Prime Minister, who gets on her moral high horse regularly in this parliament, has ridden every policy horse possible.

On the subject of the UN convention, we had the Prime Minister on radio 6PR on 8 July last year state:

I would rule out anywhere that is not a signatory to the Refugee Convention.

Let's mark these words: 'I would rule out anywhere that is not a signatory to the refugee convention'. You just cannot have a Prime Minister who makes categorical statements one day and then says the exact opposite another day when it suits her political purpose. Now the view of this government is:

… being a signatory to the Refugee Convention is important, but it's not the be all and end all …

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