Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Immigration and Citizenship) Share this | Hansard source

There are people sitting around this country tonight watching this on television and there are people listening to it on their radios, because this is our parliament at work tonight. This is not a night for bravado, machismo and pounding of the dispatch box. This is a night for grace, it is a night for sober reflection, and it is a night to consider carefully the measures that are in front of us this evening. I regret that the minister in his statements has misjudged, I think, what the Australian people are expecting of this parliament tonight and the way in which we should be conducting this debate. This debate today has seen some of the finest speeches that I have witnessed in this place. That is something which is a credit to members around this parliament and I look forward to that continuing as the contributions continue.

This parliament is at work tonight seeking to break a deadlock. That is something that has been said repeatedly by people around the country, and that is what we are trying to get done here as an amendment has been put forward to try and break that deadlock. Beyond that deadlock, there are other matters—particularly, that members on this side of the House have sought to seek support for the measures in this amendment from those who sit on the crossbench. Those measures include what was referred to by the Leader of the Opposition: an increase of the refugee and humanitarian intake to 20,000 people within three years. Those opposite know full well my great concerns about the ability to achieve that sort of target in that sort of time frame. The members who have been part of discussions will know that one of my greatest concerns about achieving that is that we do it in a way that the settlement services program can support it. If you increase this intake too quickly, then you can collapse the settlement services support system. Members on that side of the House know that as well as members on this side of the House.

Three years is a sensible time frame to work towards that target. The minister believes that that target is appropriate as well. That is something that we can work on together. It is something that has troubled me in the past and, in a bid to try and break this deadlock, it is something I am willing to work towards, but with the condition that I have provided: that we work through it constructively through a multiparty committee of this parliament and work through the details with those who provide these services on the ground, so we can be confident that we can hit that target and provide those places—and afford those places—and do it in a way that does not jeopardise the important settlement services that are provided currently to thousands of people who rely on those services to enable them to become great Australians. We have seen thousands upon thousands of great Australians come through our refugee and humanitarian program. Both sides of this House support strongly our refugee and humanitarian program. We have differences over issues relating to border protection and we are seeking to try and resolve those differences in this House tonight with that measure, and so we put that forward.

We have also said that we would support the flagged amendment from the member for Denison to have a one-year sunset clause on the provisions that are before the House tonight. We have said, and it is current coalition policy, that we will support the UNHCR monitoring and running these processing centres, should it agree to do so. We have said that we would have a benchmark of 12 months for processing people that go through such facilities to process their claims. This is what is being asked of members on that side of the House. What we are asking of the members of the crossbench is to support the amendment, so that the amendment we can have that comes out of this place tonight—

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