Sharon Claydon (Newcastle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I am very proud to have seconded this motion on Save the Children Australia that is before the House, and I thank my colleague the member for Scullin for introducing the motion today. With a history stretching back nearly 100 years, Save the Children has an exemplary record in creating better lives for children and their families in more than 124 countries, delivering both emergency aid and long-term sustainable development programs. But the focus of this debate today is the treatment of Save the Children Australia and its staff on Nauru—in particular, the forced removal of 10 Save the Children staff on orders from the Australian government. Their removal was based on allegations that were utterly baseless, as was confirmed by the independent reviews conducted by Moss and Doogan, contrary to suggestions from then Minister Morrison, who insisted that Save the Children workers were 'making false allegations and worse, allegedly coaching self-harm and using children in protests'.

The independent reviews that followed clearly refuted the minister's suggestion that Save the Children personnel had been encouraging disorder, making clear that their expulsion was totally unjustified. Testimony by former Save the Children workers, during a recent Senate inquiry, further illustrated not only the injustice of the expulsions but also the impact that allegations had on workers, like Natasha Blucher. She told the Senate inquiry:

At the time I was distraught at the—

minister's—

allegation because you can imagine that I and my colleagues were terrified and we were desperately attempting to convince people not to harm themselves. … to be told that I was accused of having tried to facilitate that was beyond comprehension.

These were not the statements of staff looking to pursue a political agenda, as was alleged by Minister Morrison. They were experienced support workers, looking to ensure the welfare of children and adults in Australia's care. It is abundantly clear that Save the Children Australia and their employees are entitled to an unconditional apology from this Liberal government. Beyond an apology, the entitlement to compensation remains a live issue, yet, as Ms Blucher told the Senate inquiry, this is not the focus of concern for the former workers. She said:

… to be honest, I do not feel good talking about compensation, because I feel like it is the least important thing in relation to the seriousness of the harm that is occurring to asylum seekers in the offshore processing centre. So it does not feel right to me to talk about it.

The government's modus operandi of shooting the messenger rather than dealing with the substantive issues at hand must be broken. The lack of transparency, in relation to all matters concerning Australia's handling of refugees, leads me and many others to wonder: what is this government hiding? What is happening on Nauru? What is happening when refugees are met by Australian Border Force at sea? How many people are we sending back to the very dangers that they have tried to escape? And, with the removal of Save the Children personnel from Nauru, who is left to protect and advocate for the refugees on Nauru?

The government cannot walk away from our duty of care and our obligations under international law. Where are the guarantees from this government that asylum seekers will be protected from threats to their physical safety, wherever they are housed in our care, and treated with dignity and respect? Immigration detention, both within Australia and offshore, is no place for children and I support every effort to move children and their families out of detention and into the community as soon as possible.

I implore the government: to adopt Labor's commitments to doubling the refugee intake, to massively increasing support for UNHCR, to establishing an independent children's advocate, to imposing mandatory reporting of child abuse in our facilities, to introducing independent oversight of all Australian-funded detention facilities and to restoring measures to ensure that refugee claims are processed as quickly as possible, so we are not leaving people in a permanent state of unknowing. It is time to stop this toxic debate in Australian politics around asylum seekers and, instead, work to form genuine, respectful partnerships with organisations like Save the Children and UNHCR to break the deadlock.

Debate adjourned.

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