Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Mackellar, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Seniors) Share this | Hansard source

In seconding these amendments to the bill, I highlight the fact that the Prime Minister has attempted to say in this chamber today that she wanted the politics to be set aside, but she in fact does not. If she did, she would agree to the amendments.

The sticking point is, as the member for Cook has just outlined, that we on this side insist that a country where offshore processing is to take place must be a country that has signed the United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees. The member for Cook has pointed out that Nauru, Papua New Guinea, East Timor and the Philippines are countries that have done so, and that Malaysia is a country that has not. The member for Cook has also pointed out that the High Court said that the minister was incapable of giving protection under section 198A of the Migration Act to protect the rights of those people—and that showed, quite frankly, that he had not done his homework.

The proposed Malaysian solution—what a hideous term it is—is in fact a trade in human flesh. It is swapping human beings from point A to point B and it is totally and utterly unacceptable to this side of the House. If the Prime Minister were fair dinkum about her wish to find a way through this impasse and to see that we have legislation enacted that would be a deterrent to the trade of the people smugglers, then she would agree to these amendments.

It is quite clear that when those on the other side of the House get up and deny, as they regularly do, that the legislation that was implemented and the actions that were taken by the Howard government worked and that the boats stopped, they are in absolute denial. There was one person on ABC Radio this morning who did admit that the boats stopped as a result of the Howard actions, but said that that did not actually amount to a solution for the difficulty. The fact of the matter is that by having temporary protection visas, by having offshore processing and by turning boats around when safe to do so—and our proposal is not, as the Minister for Trade and Competitiveness said this morning, to tow boats around, again, a misleading statement; our proposal is that boats be turned around where it is safe to do so—the Howard government took actions that worked.

The overall and most important requirement on this side of the House is that offshore processing only take place where the convention has been signed. Choosing to have a trade in human flesh with a nation that has not signed the refugee convention shows that the Prime Minister has no legitimacy and no real concern about trying to stop those boats being put to sea. We saw all the intoning and all the trickery that went on prior to question time, when the Leader of Government Business was trying to stop the Leader of the Opposition moving to suspend standing orders and have a vote in order to see the opposition's bill—the bill that would be the step that is necessary to stop the trade of the people smugglers and to stop people putting their lives at risk on the high seas.

Madam Deputy Speaker, if the government has any sense of wanting to show the Australian people that it can tell the truth on just one thing, it will agree to the opposition amendments that have been moved by the member for Cook. It is not too late for the government to change its mind, if it sees fit to do so. It is not too late for the Prime Minister to stop intoning about wishing to find a solution and take some action that will stop the boats. That means having the three-pronged policy: you turn the boats around where it is safe to do so; you have offshore processing but only where the refugee convention has been signed; and you have temporary protection visas so that, when it is safe for a refugee to return to their homeland, they will do so. In the meantime there is no family reunion, which is part of the 'sugar on the table' that Indonesia refer to when they talk about Australia tempting people to come here and risk their lives. We have the opportunity right now to take action by accepting the amendments as moved by the member for Cook. (Time expired)

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