Chris Bowen (McMahon, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Immigration and Citizenship) Share this | Hansard source

The House of Representatives has passed a bill. The House of Representatives has done the responsible thing. The House of Representatives has given the government of the day the power to implement its policies. The other place has not. The other place has taken a different point of view. The member for Denison said, 'We may not pass anything, but this is an opportunity for talk.' Talk will not save lives. Talk will not stop people smugglers. Talk will not act to break the people smugglers' business model. Action will.

The member for Sturt said we could pass the member for Cook's bill and then implement Nauru. It has been a matter of record in this House that Nauru, a Christmas Island style detention centre further away, will not break the people smugglers' business model. The single largest, most tragic maritime tragedy this nation has faced on asylum seekers was SIEVX. It occurred when Nauru was up and operating. It occurred when Nauru was designed by the previous government to break the people smugglers' business model and was failing. It occurred when Nauru was open and just before it was too full, and then they had to open Manus Island as well. That is why the government has put forward its legislation.

Nauru at that time was not a signatory to the UN Convention relating to the Status of Refugees. This is something that the opposition says has been its consistent position for 10 years. It has not; it is a recent invention. Hence the announcement made by the Prime Minister and me yesterday to appoint two bodies: firstly, an expert panel to advise the entire parliament. The government has had the benefit of advice for many months about what is necessary to break the people smugglers' business model. We made that advice available to the opposition. We made it available to the crossbench. The crossbench, to its very great credit, listened to that advice, and I recognise the member for Denison's difficulty. He had previously opposed the legislation. It was a matter of some personal difficulty for him. He reflected on his situation and he reflected on the advice and he decided to act, and I congratulate him on that. I congratulate him on not being so small as to stick to a position when the circumstances had changed. I recognise that it was not an easy decision for him to make. He listened to the advice. Others in the House and in the Senate chose not to.

We want a formal mechanism to share the sort of advice that the government has received, so we have announced that the former Chief of the Australian Defence Force, Mr Angus Houston; Mr Paris Aristotle, a deeply respected refugee counsellor and adviser; and Mr Michael L'Estrange, a former secretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, have been commissioned to convene that expert panel. There has been a cross-party reference group established and the Leader of the Opposition has been invited to nominate a representative. If he chooses not to do so the government will be happy to receive a self-nominated member of the opposition to sit on that cross-party reference group to help the parliament work its way through. The parliament, over the last 48 hours, has made it clear: it will not pass this legislation. The government accepts this, but we will not walk away from the need for this legislation and we will continue to make the case for it. We will continue to make the case based on that expert advice and we will share that expert advice with the House.

With all due respect to the member for Denison, he says he does not support offshore processing, and I accept that, but he said we need to do something. We do need to do something, but what we need to do is offshore processing. What we need to do is offshore processing within the regional framework. We need to do that offshore processing with proper resettlement, not the resettlement into Australia which a detention centre on Nauru would deliver.

This government stands ready to pass legislation. More talk is not the answer; action is the answer. We again call on the parliament to take action, but with proper consideration and expert advice, not the politicking and more talk that will see this debate drag on without the parliament taking heed of the expert advice. The government therefore opposes the member for Denison's motion.

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