Michael Keenan (Stirling, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Justice, Customs and Border Protection) Share this | Hansard source

I rise in support of the Migration Amendment (Reinstatement of Temporary Protection Visas) Bill 2013. The bill was moved by my colleague the shadow minister for immigration and citizenship and is in line with the coalition's long-held belief that we need to return to the successful border protection policies of the Howard government if we are to regain some control over our borders and have some control over who comes to our country.

There was an announcement by the government about an hour ago that there was another illegal boat arrival today. That means that there have been more illegal boat arrivals this financial year alone—and bear in mind that we are only three-quarters of the way through this financial year—than occurred under the whole 11 years of the Howard government. That is just an indication of the unprecedented wave of illegal boat arrivals that we have been experiencing because of the failed border protection policies that have been pursued by the Labor Party since they have come to office.

Given that very serious record of failure, it strikes me as very strange that the Labor Party will not return to the point where they broke the system. That was when they came to office and did things like repealing the issue of temporary protection visas and abolishing the Pacific solution. They refused to implement their stated policy for the 2007 election, which was to turn the boats around. It strikes me as very strange that the Labor Party do not go back to the point of August 2007 when they broke the robust system of border protection they had inherited from the previous government. When they made those policy changes they sent the message loud and clear to criminal gangs of people smugglers that Australia was once again a soft touch, that Australia was once again refusing to have the resolve to stand up to their evil trade.

In September 2008, literally a month after those changes had been made—the abolition of the Pacific Solution and the abolition of temporary protection visas—the people smugglers went back into business. In September 2008 we had the first wave of illegal boat arrivals come down to Australia again. They came in what was, in hindsight, only a trickle. Subsequently, at the end of 2008 and in 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012 and this year the unprecedented rate of arrival has been continuing to increase to the point where we have had over 14,000 people arrive illegally this financial year alone, and almost 240 illegal boats. That is getting very close to one illegal boat arrival per day. That is not a rate that we can sustain in Australia. As a result, even though the detention network has been massively expanded to cope with this influx, the government has been forced to release people into the community to live on welfare, with no entitlement to work, in a way that I think is detrimental to them and also to the Australian taxpayer.

This bill is an attempt to rectify some of the damage that the Labor Party has done, and it makes perfect sense to me and my colleagues in the opposition that we should seek to reinstate the strong border protection policies that the Howard government used to solve this problem when we were faced with it in very similar circumstances in the decade up until the year 2001. Prior to 2001 we had a substantial increase in every given year of illegal boat arrivals. Success breeds success with people smuggling: the more the people smugglers could get people down here illegally the more people would seek out the services of the people smugglers and the more people would arrive in Australia illegally. The Howard government was faced with very similar circumstances. Success bred success and the number of illegal boat arrivals continue to increase in the late 1990s and in the year 2000. In the year 2001 the Howard government said: 'Enough is enough. We are not going to accept people smugglers controlling our immigration system. We are going to do what is necessary to close that trade down.'

People smugglers are not some sort of modern-day Oskar Schindlers; they are the most diabolical criminals who cared absolutely nothing for the human cargo they smuggle down here, to the point where you can hear dreadful anecdotal stories about people who have employed the services of the people smuggler only to be left in the high seas where the crew abandoned ship. We will not know the extent of the people who have been lost trying to take this journey because it is impossible to get an accurate understanding about the number of people who have lost their lives taking this journey. Certainly, it would be in the hundreds. There is no doubt that hundreds upon hundreds of people have died trying to make this journey—hundreds of adult women and men and also children and babies.

It is not the case, as the government would have people believe, that there is nothing we can do about this, that we have to accept that there is nothing we can do to close down people smuggling, that it is going to be ever-present and that it is going to continue to increase. That is not the case. The reason we know that is not the case is we have solved this problem in the past. The Howard government was faced with very similar circumstances. In 2001 it took tough but necessary decisions that were controversial within the Australian community at the time. What you cannot argue is that they were not successful. Once those measures were taken they essentially completely and utterly closed down people smuggling.

In the years after 2001-2002 and up until 2008 when those policies were reversed, we had an average of three illegal boat arrivals per year. Three per year; that is one every four months. If you want to put that into context, last weekend we had six illegal boat arrivals. So, we used to have three a year under the Howard government's successful border protection policies and now we can have double that arrive on one given weekend under the Labor Party's failed border protection policies.

The way we are going to reverse this is to go back to those successful policies that have actually worked. A very successful part of those policies was temporary protection visas. Temporary protection visas work incredibly well because they undermine the product that people smugglers are selling. People smugglers are selling permanent residence in Australia. If you undermine the ability of people smugglers to sell permanent residence in Australia you undermine their ability to go out into the international community and to sell their product for a very large sum.

You can understand how permanent residence in Australia is a very lucrative product. Temporary protection visas undermine the ability of people smugglers to do that, and that is why they are such a successful part of a successful border protection regime. That is why it is vitally important that this parliament embrace measures to return to temporary protection visas so that we can once again control who comes to Australia.

This bill would restore two classes of temporary protection visa: subclasses 785 and 447. Both of these subclasses of visa were available under the former coalition government, and they are of course also in keeping with Australia's obligations under the refugee convention.

The temporary protection offshore entry visa would be for a term of up to three years. That term would be set by the minister or his or her delegate. This visa gives the holder the right to work and to special benefit payments, and also access to Medicare. I do think that the right to work is particularly important because at the moment we have the situation which I think is the worst of all worlds both for the people concerned and also for the Australian taxpayer. That is where people are released into the community with only the right to live on welfare. This seems to be the absolute worst of all worlds for all policies.

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