Nick Champion (Wakefield, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

The member for Fadden earlier in the debate referred to the Orion aircraft, which, in response to the terrible tragedy that we have seen off our coast today, is on its way there or on its way back from there. Those men and women who fly the Orions of 92 Wing fly them out of my electorate. I have flown with them on a mission over the seas to our north. Those service men and women are very professional. They are glorious in their commitment and duty to this nation. Their courage should be reflected in the speeches that we give here today. At the end of this debate, this House will be either a house of courage or a house of the damned.

I remember, like the member for Stirling, being on the Christmas Island tragedy committee. I remember the testimony of border protection staff, of the Navy, of the Christmas Islanders and of the Federal Police about the terrible events of that day. I remember the testimony of the doctor who said that she had run out of body bags on the island and that they had had to wrap people in black plastic. These are terrible things, terrible events. Since I served on that committee, I have urged my party, whenever I could, to adopt unpalatable but necessary policies to save lives—to prevent risk to the lives of people who make these boat journeys and to those who respond to them. We must remember that there is a risk to the lives of ADF personnel, Federal Police and border protection staff.

The member for Melbourne talked about the 1970s and our response then—and we should not forget that, because it is instructive. Some 70,000 people came here, but a mere 1,700 of them came by boat. The rest came out of the camps in Malaysia, Hong Kong and Thailand. They came out here because we increased our intake by a vast degree—not by a mere 25,000 but by tens of thousands. If the member for Melbourne wants to advocate that sort of response, he should put a number on it—and it is a number bigger than 25,000 if he wants to stop the boats; I think it is something more like 100,000. I think he has a responsibility to do that.

There is little nice that can be said about the opposition's chocolate-wheel of arguments. They have come in here with every argument under the sun, many of them inconsistent with their past policies and many of them inconsistent with their public utterances. They have an obligation to be courageous and to be bipartisan, and they have missed that opportunity.

It seems to me that it is going to be a great contest in this House to break this partisan deadlock. It will take courage, it will take iron and it will take will for representatives to do that, because people are going to have to change their position. Some people are going to have to defy their parties and some people are going to have to examine their consciences. We have already done that in the Labor Party. We have had very painful caucus debates. Basically, this House is either going to reflect the professionalism, courage and dedication of 92 Wing and the Border Protection Command and their border protection staff or it is going to be a house of the damned.

See this speech in context