Brendan O'Connor (Gorton, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Immigration and Citizenship) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Werriwa for his question and his long interest in these matters. Border protection, asylum seekers and these issues can be challenging for any government. These issues for any government, in any community, can be fraught. Failing to heed expert advice can potentially be fatal. I need no convincing of the importance of listening to expert advice, after being Minister for Home Affairs for 2½ years. On one particularly memorable occasion for me, on 15 December 2010, I arrived on Christmas Island only hours after one of the most tragic maritime disasters in recent times, where 50 people—men, women and children—perished when a vessel foundered on the rocks on Christmas Island. Forty-one people were rescued, 40 of whom were plucked from the sea by very brave and courageous naval and Customs personnel. On that day, if I had had any doubt at all before, I knew it was critical that this country found the most effective means to deter vessels from coming to our shores in this manner. That underlined to me the need to bring about changes to ensure the most comprehensive approach we could possibly take and to heed the advice of our agencies and others to ensure that we did not see further lives lost.

We commissioned experts, three very eminent Australians: Michael L'Estrange, extraordinary public servant, former Secretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, former High Commissioner to the United Kingdom; Paris Aristotle, with more than 20 years experience in dealing with refugee settlement and these complex issues; and Angus Houston, former Chief of the Australian Defence Force, appointed by the Howard government and reappointed by this government to that office. Those three eminent Australians came to a position, from different perspectives, and made 22 recommendations. At the centre of those recommendations was ensuring that we did not see any further lives lost at sea.

I say to the Leader of the Opposition, who has said he wants to be positive and wants to have the coalition act as an alternative government, and has said he has consulted with experts: consider once again the 22 recommendations that have been outlined by these eminent Australians. Without his reconsidering that position, I am afraid, and this government is afraid, we will see further deaths at sea, we will see more infants carried up the shore on Christmas Island, as we saw on 15 December 2010. I implore the opposition leader to be positive and think of those children.

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