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

This has been a good debate so far on the Migration Legislation Amendment (The Bali Process) Bill 2012, and it has been held in a very good spirit. I congratulate everyone on both sides of the House for the spirit in which this debate has been conducted. The important thing today is to go forward from this House with a bill that will pass the parliament. That is what we want—we want a bill to come out of here that will pass the parliament. The parliament is not just this chamber but also the Senate, and in the Senate the government does not have a majority. So it is very important, if this debate is to bring about progress rather than mere noise, that the bill which comes out of this chamber has a strong chance of passing the Senate.

That is why the amendment moved by the member for Cook is so important. What that amendment does is ensure that offshore processing takes place in countries which have the human rights protections guaranteed by the UN Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees. That is the key—getting a bill out of this chamber which can go through the parliament and which will allow the government of the day to establish more effective border protection policies. The Prime Minister and the government ought to be very happy with the amendments that have been moved by the member for Cook because the Prime Minister said during the last election campaign:

We want to deal with the countries that are signatory to the refugee convention.

She also said before the last election, during the campaign:

I would rule out anywhere that is not a signatory to the refugee convention.

What this amendment proposes to do is to restore precisely the position the Prime Minister had before the election. That is why this amendment would effectively put in place the bill that I sought to move before question time at two o'clock today. That is why this amendment is the basis on which the whole parliament can unite and our country can go forward. Without this amendment I fear that it will be a very divisive bill, for good reasons.

The Malaysia people swap, which the Oakeshott bill in its present form is designed to facilitate, is the kind of deal that no self-respecting country would make. What self-respecting country engages in a five-for-one people swap? No self-respecting country would so humiliate itself. Further, the Malaysian people swap is limited to just 800 and, given the scale of the numbers, 800 is simply not going to be effective.

Finally, the other fundamental problem with the bill as it currently stands—without the member for Cook's amendment—is that the boats will keep coming because the government has already indicated that women and children will not be sent to Malaysia. Frankly, how could they send women and children to Malaysia given the fact that human rights protections in Malaysia cannot be guaranteed?

Without the member for Cook's amendments, there is very little hope of any progress in this chamber or any progress in this parliament at this time. I say: let us not just have a debate today, let us have a solution today. The best way to get a solution out of this parliament today is to support the member for Cook's amendments. That would produce a bill that this parliament can truly unite around and that this country can be truly proud of. Without the member for Cook's amendments we may possibly get a bill through this chamber but that is as far as it will go. We will not have made any progress on stopping the boats, which has to be the fundamental objective of every member of this House.

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