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

Out of deference to you, Mr Deputy Speaker, I will happily withdraw. But it is deeply disappointing that we still see the opposition and the Greens playing politics with this issue. And we all know why they play politics with this issue and they want to throw bricks every day at the government. Then when someone calls them on it we have this chronic sensitivity about it. I do not think it is good enough. I know my constituents do not think it is good enough. They were certainly aghast when the opposition refused to vote for legislation that would have allowed the Malaysian transfer agreement, allowing offshore processing to begin six weeks earlier. Instead, they all went on the winter break.

The government is the only party in this parliament that is committed to implementing the Houston report's 22 recommendations. We have legislated to begin offshore processing and it has begun on Nauru. It is sending a message to people-smugglers, to the people who might be tempted, might be desperate enough to pay a people smuggler: do not come by boat; do not risk your life. We are developing cooperative bilateral agreements with Indonesia and Malaysia and we are in the process of improving the Malaysian agreement along the lines advocated in the Houston report. And that will be the thing that strikes fear into the hearts of people smugglers and stops their business model.

But this is also being done with compassion in mind, and that is why we have increased the humanitarian intake to 20,000 places—and that is an important thing to do. If you are going to say to people that they should take the appropriate approach, that they should wait, that they should be assessed by the UNHCR, that they should not take a dangerous boat journey, then people should have some opportunity to start a life in Australia, if they are refugees.

The Gillard government is committed to resolving this problem, despite being frustrated by this parliament on numerous occasions, despite being frustrated in the other place, the Senate, by this Liberal-Greens 'noalition'—this marriage of convenience that is going on. They talk tougher on the Greens but they like preferencing them in Melbourne and they like doing deals with them in the Senate to frustrate the national interest.

Mr Ewen Jones interjecting—

That is what happened. That is the way you voted. That is what is recorded in the Hansardyou voting with the Greens against offshore processing, against the Malaysian transfer agreement. That was the agreement that would have sent the strongest possible message to people smugglers, and you voted against it, to the disappointment of your own constituents. I have no doubt about that.

We believe in backing the Houston report recommendations, and we sincerely hope for bipartisan agreement on this, more than anything. We need to put an Australia-first position on this, to our region and to the people who would take advantage of legitimate refugee processing—the people smugglers, who do this to make money. They put people on dangerous voyages on dangerous boats, encourage people to risk their lives. That is their act. It is not a government or an opposition act; there are criminal networks in our regions that do this, and we want to see it stop and we want to see it stop as soon as possible. And we would beg the opposition just for a modicum of cooperation in this matter.

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