Steve Georganas (Adelaide, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I too rise to oppose this bill. Looking at the title of this particular bill that we're debating, the Migration Amendment (Repairing Medical Transfers) Bill 2019, I have to say that this legislation was repaired in the last parliament by what was moved in this House. It was changed to make it humane and to give the medical attention that was required to people who were in Nauru and on Manus Island. It was for them to be able to receive that medical attention, which is the humane thing to do. These people are in custody; they're in detention. They're our responsibility. When someone is sick, when someone needs a doctor and when someone is seeking medical attention, it is the humane and right thing to do to give those people the medical attention that they require.

Here we have, again, a government that is using refugees as a political football. We know this because their track record has been such ever since they came into government and when they were in government previously. When you look at the history and the track record of this government—you don't have to go that far back—you will remember the children overboard and how that event was manipulated for the political benefit of the government. This amendment here today and these topics that we're discussing are exactly the same. This is an issue that this government is seeking to use to manipulate and to play politics with. That is wrong. I've stood up in this place many times, as many of my colleagues have, to say that it's wrong.

We have people who need medical attention. They are our responsibility while they are being detained. They need the help of medical treatment. This shows, again, how cruel this government can be. There are no security risks. There are no border challenges. This has nothing to do with watering down our border protection. It has nothing to do with refugee policies and changing the way that we resettle people. This has simply to do with giving medical attention to people that require it. It is inhumane and it is cruel.

We have a government that's meant to look after people. Here they are basically denying people the medical attention that they require. Many of these people on Manus and Nauru are seeking refugee status. The majority will be found to be genuine refugees and will be resettled here in Australia. But we have a government that's playing politics again. We know that the bill was passed in this House not long ago to ensure that people were getting that attention they required. It had nothing to do with watering down our refugee policy. It had nothing to do with our border protection. It was simply a measure to ensure that people get one of the human rights that are required by people all over the world.

The government has used this, once again, to play politics with. It has been the trend all along by this government. For many, many years, and in the previous coalition government that existed from 1996 right through to 2007, it has been their trend. This is no different. This is absolutely no different. The government wants to refuse people medical attention, and this includes women and children and people who have been sitting and languishing in these places for many years. Our objective is that the medevac bill is necessary and it's been working. It's been working very well. We argued that, if the government had legitimate proposals to improve the operations, let's see them, let's hear about them. Where are the government members to stand up and defend what it put up today? Where are they to prosecute it and argue why this is needed? I see no government members on the list of speakers—none whatsoever. That's because they can't argue it. There is no argument and there are no points that they can make.

How can Australians believe the government when they routinely manipulate this issue? They misrepresent and mischaracterise the truth for political gain. We have a minister and a government that constantly cry wolf when it comes to this issue—constantly—because they have nothing else to offer the Australian public. All they have is the scare tactics and the divisive politics—dividing our community and dividing the public out there on this particular issue. The reality, as I said earlier—and every other speaker on this side has said this—is that this issue has nothing to do with watering down our border protection or watering down the settlement processes in place for refugees. This is simply a measure to ensure that people who require medical attention, and that includes women and children, are given that attention as quickly as possible. We saw cases on Nauru and Manus where people actually died because they didn't get that attention. It was reported in the papers. We saw people, for months, fighting in the courts. In the end, most of the time it has been found that they had to receive that attention.

Since the medevac laws were enacted, only seven patients have been transferred to Australia without the approval of the immigration minister, David Coleman. The minister didn't reject these cases on security or character concerns but on medical grounds. The individuals were only transferred to Australia after being assessed by an expert panel of doctors that the minister got to choose. This once again highlights the failure of the minister and the government to do their job. It's mismanagement of basic legislative tasks and mismanagement of the department.

The government oversaw $300 million of Australian Border Force budget blowouts, resulting in the Australian Border Force fleet being ordered to stop the patrols, as we all heard, when medevac came in, to save money—it's just ridiculous—and $7 million was spent on a strategic review of the Department of Home Affairs. We're not even allowed to see what that strategic review was about, yet $7 million was spent on it. We won't go into the failure of the managed offshore contracts, which we all read about in the papers and saw in the media. This is a bill that has been put in place by the government to divide the community and prevent people from getting the medical attention they require. They are out there basically misrepresenting and telling the Australian public something that isn't true. We've heard this time and time again. When it comes to this particular issue, all we have seen is divisive politics without any purpose and without any processes in place; it's just to play politics. I think it's about time—and I've said this many times—that we stopped playing politics with human beings, with refugees. We've been doing it for far too long, we've been doing it for the wrong reasons in this place, and it's about time that we stopped doing this. I fear that this isn't the end of it and that we will see many, many nasty, inhumane proposals by this government over the next three years. When they have nothing to offer for the betterment of Australia and for the betterment of the future of the next generation, they will just be manipulative with refugees, migration and the issues that we've constantly seen for many years.

I fear for the way we're going in this nation. This has to stop, because the way that we've been treating refugees is wrong. We should start looking at being a humane nation, with a government that looks after people and ensures that we keep our border protection. But, at the same time, when people need medical attention they should get medical attention.

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