Stuart Robert (Fadden, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Defence Science, Technology and Personnel) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to support the amendment lodged by my friend and colleague the member for Cook.

But firstly let me thank the Prime Minister for updating the House on the military involvement in the high seas to the north of Australia. Let me thank HMAS Maitland and her ships company of 21 for the work they are doing right now in terms of rescue and assistance. Her motto is 'Invincible' and I am sure the ship and her company are living up to that. I am not to sure if the P-3 C has returned to base, but let me also thank the pilots and crew for that. I ask the Minister for Defence if he could pass on the thanks I think of the whole House for the work that our military are doing in incredibly difficult circumstances in the north of our country.

Can I say I find myself in agreement with the Minister for Defence Materiel this afternoon when he said that in 2001 both sides joined together under difficult circumstances to put together tough but humane measures. He is right. Both sides did join together. Both sides did come together and vote on a raft and suite of measures that worked. There is no question they worked. In the last six years of the Howard government only about three boats a year were arriving. In fact, in last weekend only a few weekends ago more boats and more people seeking asylum arrived in that one long weekend than in the last six years of the Howard government.

When the Howard government lost office there were four people in detention—just four. It was the raft of measures, as the Minister for Defence Materiel quite rightly pointed out—a raft of measures—that worked. Since November 2007 when the current government came to power what we have seen is over 336 boats come and almost 20,000 irregular maritime arrivals. I sat here for years and years listening to the government substantiate and justify the dismantling of that raft of measures, justifying the fact that it was not pull factors that were bringing to our shores in leaky, rickety boats; it was push factors. For years and years that spin continued that it was push factors.

I think today it is all laid bare, as it has been for a while. The member for Throsby made the point himself, to his credit, that there are substantial pull factors at work. It is pull factors that have drawn people to our shores. It is the government's dismantling of that raft of measures that have pulled people to our shores. Since Prime Minister Gillard came to office on 24 June, there have been 196 boats and 12,877 people have risked their lives coming here. Since the Malaysian solution was signed, 101 boats and 7,519 souls have made the journey to come here—over 1,000 month. The 800 subscribed to in that deal has been overwhelmed at a rate of 800 per 2½ weeks. The Minister for Defence Materiel made it clear in previous addresses to the House that four per cent of people are tragically losing their lives in that dangerous crossing across our northern shores, with 20,000 people having made the journey since this government came to power. That is upwards of 800 souls lost in terrifying circumstances. It does not have to be this way.

I support the amendment of the member for Cook. I support it because I simply cannot in good conscience subscribe to the idea of and vote for sending people to a country where there are no protections. The amendment is a sound. When the previous government used Nauru for offshore processing, those protections were enshrined in law. Taking those protections out of Australian law means that only a subscription to the UN resolution and the 1951 agreement will provide the necessary protections. So I agree with the Prime Minister's statement that she made on radio on 6PR with Howard Sattler prior to the last election. I agree with the Prime Minister's statement wholeheartedly. She said, 'I will not be sending people to countries that haven't signed the UN Convention.' I agree with her, and the parliament today should agree with her.

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