Don Randall (Canning, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Local Government) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Chifley for his motion and it gives me an opportunity to respond, and respond I will in terms of some of the issues that he has raised. For example, the premise of his motion is factually incorrect in that people are automatically returned, and I will deal with this later on. The issue arising from his motion that I want to deal with straight away is where he says it is terrible where Sri Lankans are returned to a country that is not a member of the convention. We are saying that Malaysia is not a destination because they are not a member of the convention as well. I will point out to the member opposite the difference is that those coming through Malaysia are not Malaysians; they are Afghans, they are from Iraq and a range of countries. But those coming from Sri Lanka are Sri Lankans, whether they be Tamils or Singhalese or Muslims. There is a great misunderstanding in this place and I know a little bit about this because I arrived back from Sri Lanka just one month ago, having spent a fair bit of time there. I visited not only those in Colombo as also I went to the north into the war regions and visited people there. I sponsor Tamil families in the north because I am interested in seeing that they get a fair go post civil war.

The member fails to understand that the number of people that are coming here by boat are not just Tamils. Many of them, being a large proportion—and I put the figures to the House the other day—are Singhalese and a large proportion are Muslims.

Now, before we go any further I must point out, so that there is no misunderstanding, that the coalition has called on the government to intercept illegal boats from Sri Lanka bound for Australia before they enter our territorial waters and come to an arrangement with the Sri Lankan government to send these people back. The government has completely rejected this, and almost 3,000 Sri Lankans have arrived by boat so far this year.

The Sri Lankan government has made significant steps to turn boats around. And, to that end—I would love to be able to table this, but I imagine it would be rejected—here is set of boats that I visited; 27 boats in Trincomalee Harbour, which had been turned around by the Sri Lankan Navy. Here is a boat, down the bottom of the picture, which his listing badly. The Sri Lankan Navy told me that that boat, under any sea conditions, would have sunk within two days because it was so unseaworthy. What is humanitarian about letting people do that massive journey to Australia by boat with a fear of losing their lives?

I will come to the other people I met shortly. But can I say that our policy is quite clear: where boats can be turned back they will be—and the Sri Lankan Navy is turning boats back and actively being encouraged to get to Australia by people-smugglers—because not only are they likely to lose their lives but, in most cases, they will not get a visa.

I will outline just how genuine, or not genuine, many of the people are who are coming to Australia from Sri Lanka. There is no longer the 'push'    factor from Sri Lanka—the civil war is over—it is the 'pull' factor, the sugar coated arrangement that Australia has provided to those coming here. I will give you an example. A document that I have obtained from the Sri Lankan High Commission to the Australian government points out that they have three people here on class XA resident subclass 866 and XB resident subclass 200 visas—or protection visas—who have contacted the Sri Lankan High Commission in Canberra to obtain travel documents to Sri Lanka. These people are Mr L Ibralebbe, passport No. N1608739; Mrs S Sivaharan, passport No. 885920; and Mrs R Somasundaram, passport No. N0174857. These people came and got humanitarian visas from Australia and, within months of getting these visas, sought travel documents to return to Sri Lanka. What sort of danger are you under if you claim to have humanitarian issues in the country and claim that if you stay there you will be tortured and you couldn't live there any more; and as soon as you get a humanitarian visa in Australia, you seek to return to Sri Lanka for a family wedding or funeral? It is just not credible.

I have also been given documents on voluntary repatriation from Australia. As a sample, there were 57 people here that have been repatriated recently, in the last month—names, addresses and the full details. Not only that; some of them have been rung in the last day or so—

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