Andrew Wilkie (Denison, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

I seek leave to move a motion of censure against the Minister for Immigration and Border Protection for implying that Baby Asha was deliberately harmed as a means of facilitating asylum seeker access to Australia.

Leave not granted.

I move:

That so much of standing and sessional orders be suspended as would prevent the member for Denison from moving the following motion forthwith:

That the Minister for Immigration and Border Protection be censured for implying that Baby Asha was deliberately harmed as a means of facilitating asylum seeker access to Australia.

This needs to be dealt with immediately. What the minister said during question time today I found to be one of the ugliest things that I have heard in this place in my 5½ years serving here.

For the minister to stand up and say that Baby Asha will ultimately be returned to Nauru—and, by implication, that the other 29 babies who are currently in the process of being returned to Nauru will indeed be returned to Nauru—and that that has to be done as a disincentive to asylum seekers in the future thinking that they can somehow use self-harm or harming their babies or their children as a mechanism for getting to Australia is something that I find absolutely appalling.

What people in this House seem to be losing sight of is that we are talking about some of the most vulnerable, disadvantaged, endangered people on this planet. In particular, we are talking about what this government is up to right now: the return of 267 asylum seekers to Nauru.

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