Sussan Ley (Farrer, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Childcare and Early Childhood Learning) Share this | Hansard source

The government has announced that it will support the member for Lyne's bill, and the coalition will also support the member for Lyne's bill, with one important amendment: that the offshore processing country which is designated by the responsible minister be a signatory to the refugee convention. The coalition does not support the Malaysian solution. While there is much to admire about Malaysia, for it to be at the centre of this government's border protection policy would be a mistake. The Malaysian solution involves a trade and exchange in human beings with a country that has not ratified the UN refugee convention and associated protocols. By contrast, Nauru is a workable option and has consistently been our policy.

We have devoted enormous resources to the interdiction and rescue of boats. We are asking our Navy and Customs personnel to pull bodies out of the water. We are putting immense pressure on the Navy and Customs to be on constant standby and constant alert and in a state of continual readiness. While we would always willingly commit to the safety of life at sea, the current state of affairs is just not sustainable. It is the job of every MP to debate this legislation and to examine their conscience. That is a good thing, but in the process of that debate is it not also our responsibility to make sure that we come up with the very best policy instrument to stop the boats, stop the drownings and stop the pain? That is why I speak in support of the amendment to the member for Lyne's bill moved by the opposition spokesperson, the member for Cook.

While there is no hierarchy of need when it comes to claims to refugee status, and it is not the right of anyone in this place to say that one person is more deserving than another, we must observe the reality of all those individuals and families who wait patiently in refugee camps around the world for their chance to come to Australia, New Zealand, Canada or the US. My view is that temporary protection visas need to be part of any solution. I met many people in my electorate over the years of the Howard government who were here on temporary protection visas. In fact, the first TPVs were to the Kosovars—from Kosovo—who came to my home town of Albury-Wodonga. I met Hazaras from Afghanistan. Their circumstances were difficult. Many of them felt in a no-man's-land, cut off from their homeland far away, separated from family and uncertain of their future or when the Australian government might indicate that it was safe to go home. Some of them were sent home. Some of them stayed. They were tough times for those of us who represented those families and communities. They made connections with the small rural towns in which they lived, and representations were constantly being made on their behalf for special consideration. Those of us who supported the Howard government's approach were on the receiving end of some pretty poisonous invective, but if I compare the situation then with the situation now I would much prefer, from a humanitarian perspective, those days to these days. Since this Prime Minister took office, 196 boats and 12,877 people have arrived, and countless others have been lost at sea along the way.

Much is made of the way that things ought to work—push factors, pull factors, the UNHCR and so on. Yes, it would be so much better if the world acted together and took an approach to the worldwide flows of refugees that embedded the principles of humanitarianism, secure borders and generosity. Yes, we are a generous country. But Australia can only do what we can do in terms of the legislation we enact in this place. The coalition has been consistent. What the coalition promises and proposes today by way of our reasonable amendment to the member for Lyne's reasonable bill is actually the best way forward, and I urge members to consider it seriously.

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