Tim Watts (Gellibrand, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Since the parliament last sat, many of my constituents have contacted me about the horrifying situation that this government has created on Manus Island. This revolting spectacle is a humanitarian crisis that the Abbott-Turnbull government created. It's a product of sustained incompetence and malevolence from this government in response to asylum seekers. We are all shamed by it. It would not have happened under a Labor government. It will not happen under a future Labor government.

No human being should have been allowed to languish for years in such conditions by an Australian government. These facilities were established as processing and transit facilities—places where asylum seekers could live in safety for a brief period while the Australian government assessed their claims—not as sites of indefinite detention. The fact that they have become places of indefinite detention is a result of the Abbott government's decision upon coming to office to deliberately stop processing asylum claims, and the Abbott-Turnbull government's refusal to seriously pursue third-country resettlement arrangements for refugees in these facilities.

The refugees in Manus Island could have been resettled in a third country by any competent government of good faith years ago. Notwithstanding this, once it was clear that these facilities would need to be closed, the Turnbull government had an obligation to ensure the health, welfare and security of these people under our care. The government must immediately ensure this. It must also pursue as a matter of urgency the longstanding offer of permanent resettlement it has received from the New Zealand government. Every member of this parliament knows the way that the coalition government plays politics with the policies of asylum. It's been writ large this week, with the Prime Minister's absurd comments in the Bennelong by-election, but we should all be very clear in our understanding in this place today that people's lives are at stake in the Turnbull government's response to the Manus Island crisis.

Labor is focused on delivering a comprehensive policy framework to ensure that Australia does its bit in response to the greatest humanitarian crisis of our time—65 million people worldwide have been displaced due to conflict and persecution, making it the largest displacement since the Second World War. This is a complex and difficult international challenge that people of good faith can and will disagree on, but all of us have an obligation to do better. That's why I paid my own way to meet with refugees living in Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Myanmar earlier this year and discuss the policy context of this issue with the UNHCR and refugee groups in these countries. It's also why I've been working to build consensus in this parliament and the broader community in civil society for the expansion of Australia's refugee intake via community sponsorship. It is within our power to help these desperate people. We can do better, and we must do better.

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