Teresa Gambaro (Brisbane, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Citizenship and Settlement) Share this | Hansard source

I have sat here for the last three or more hours and listened to debate from both sides of the House, and there has been much compassion. I believe that there is much goodwill in this House from both sides. Today we can truly make a momentous decision. Today can be the day that we come together. Today can be the day that we make a decision that no other single loss of life will occur at sea. I therefore support the member for Cook's amendments. I have had the incredible privilege of working in this House and working with the member for Berowra when I was here as a member of the Howard government working as a parliamentary secretary dealing with refugee and humanitarian settlement programs and in my current role as a shadow parliamentary secretary.

Australia has had a very proud history. We have had 700,000 refugees come to this country and have accepted them since 1945. Today there have been many contributions about conventions, particularly the refugee convention, and I just want to highlight what that convention was about. In 1951 that convention related to the status of refugees. It is a key legal document in defining who is a refugee, what is their right and the legal obligations of the state. Australia signed on to that convention on 22 January 1954. Every year under our obligations to that convention—and we take those obligations very, very seriously—approximately 13,500 people are settled under the humanitarian convention. A large number of those are women at risk and in 2010-11 about 12.7 per cent of that number were women at risk.

There will always be civil wars, there will always be racial intolerance and there will always be persecution of those with different beliefs in many countries in the world. That is why the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees says that at any one time there are approximately 43 million people forcibly displaced around the world—27 million of those are internally displaced people, 15.4 million are refugees and approximately 850,000 are asylum seekers.

We have had a long-held policy of good settlement programs in this country. A few months ago I met with Antonio Guterres, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, who said that Australia had the best settlement programs in the world. So we have an incredible settlement program, we settle refugees, we provide housing, we provide language classes, we provide Centrelink support and we provide pathways for refugees to contribute and be a part of the Australian family. But what we are here about today is their pathway. I believe that we have a real chance today to come to some solution.

Australia has always supported the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and its activities all around the world in settling refugees. I have visited many refugee camps around the world. I have seen the look on the faces of people on the Thai-Burma border who are waiting for that magical interview with the UNHCR so that they can come to Australia. I see the torment of people who have come here and are used and abused by people smugglers. Every day people smugglers who engage in illegal activities deny each and every one of these people offshore a genuine place in Australia's humanitarian program. On Sunday I took part in World Refugee Day and I will never forget the faces of a large group of young men I met. I was humbled by their courage and their journey to this country.

Today is a day that we can get together. Today is a day that we can pass a bill that will make sure that there is not one single tragic life lost at sea. The tragic events of last week and the news today are gut-wrenching and heartbreaking for all of us in this House. We have an opportunity today to work together to process asylum seekers in a country that is a signatory to the United Nations refugee convention. There are 148 countries to choose from. We cannot send them to Malaysia on a swap deal. They are people, they are not commodities that can be swapped. Today is a chance when we can say that we can make a real difference. Today is a chance to say, 'Stop this loss of life at sea.'

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