Luke Simpkins (Cowan, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

In the last week we have seen, with today, two great tragedies. It is the reality that no one in this place welcomes the death of anyone, particularly not defenceless women or children, or anybody, on the high seas. Nobody wants that. What is at stake today is a very simple matter. On this side we stand with the UN Convention on Refugees; on that side they are willing to throw it away. I think it is bizarre that those that are members of the Friends of the UN in this place—mainly on the other side—are willing to stand by the Malaysia solution, throw all that long-term support away and suddenly say—like the member for Hotham said before—that there is no confidence in those that have signed it. There is no confidence in the convention itself. I think that is a tragedy. The main tragedies are the deaths of innocent people who have died at sea.

I take this opportunity to pay tribute to the Navy and Customs personnel that have risked their lives and continue to risk their lives right now at this very moment, last week and on every one of over 300 occasions where a boat has made it to Australia and where Navy or Customs have had to go out and pick up the boat. This was not always the case. There was a time when the boats had stopped. More boats arrived in one long weekend here under this current government than arrived in the last year of the Howard government.

We have seen a couple of people on the other side have now moved away from their support of the Rudd government and the Gillard government's position on offshore processing. The reality is that what actually worked, what actually stopped the boats was the Howard government's policy. The Malaysia solution is not offshore processing; it is offshore dumping. Temporary protection visas were very important in that those that arrived illegally could not apply for family reunion. Finally, there is the turning back of boats where possible, but not as is said in the throw-away lines by those on the other side about towing people back to Indonesia, from whence they came. The reality though is that those who come by boats do not suddenly miraculously appear in Indonesia.

If you come from Afghanistan, for instance—no-one underestimates the fact that Australia is a great place to live and a lot of people want to come here, but people have to fly into Indonesia. So they have to move through the airport departures lounge and the airport arrivals lounge. I struggle with the view that people feel that their lives are at risk at the airport as they pass duty-free. Contrast to those who remain behind the barbed wire in refugee camps around the world. By having this policy, that this government changed and that has failed comprehensively, what we are doing is taking away the opportunities for refugee resettlement from those who are behind the wire in refugee camps. While people may call me a racist or uncompassionate, I have been to one of those refugee camps and I have seen the little kids in rags as they stand there hoping for a better future but being held back by a country that has to process those who have the money to pay to bypass the system, to fly through those airport departure lounges and to pay to get on the boats. What a contrast that is to those who are stuck behind the wire in refugee camps.

If we need compassion, if we want to focus our humanitarian program we should do it where it really counts, for those without two bucks to rub together. That is what we should do, but in every way what is now required is to create the disincentives and put back in place the policies that are required to stop the boats. There is only one way—the opposition's way, the Morrison amendments' way. I endorse that and I think that those on the other side should as well.

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