Kate Thwaites (Jagajaga, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I thank my colleague the member for Macnamara for moving this very important motion. He is absolutely right to note that asylum seekers are still being held in alternative places of detention in Australia, such as hotels, and that this is just not appropriate. It is just not good enough that people are still being held in unsafe and cruel conditions. In Melbourne at the moment, asylum seekers are being held at the Park Hotel, and we now have a situation where there's been an outbreak of COVID and at least one person has had to be taken to hospital. It is not clear if the appropriate arrangements around infection control are in place to keep people safe in this place of detention. It is unacceptable that the Morrison government has left these asylum seekers in an unsafe position during a global pandemic.

I thank the members of my community who have contacted me who are very concerned about these asylum seekers at the Park Hotel and about the government's lack of care for them. They've been very concerned about evidence put to a Federal Circuit Court hearing recently that an ambulance called for one of the men who was detained in this hotel—called by his friends when they were concerned that he was having difficulty breathing—wasn't allowed access to treat him. These members of my community are, rightly, horrified at the possibility that this is how we treat anybody in our country. Of course, many of these people in detention have been detained for far too long, and they are already suffering significant psychological harm as a result of their prolonged and indefinite detention. It is not okay for asylum seekers to be detained in hotels indefinitely. We must move away from this practice of detaining people indefinitely. It doesn't have to be this way. This government has had repeated offers from New Zealand since 2013 that would have allowed them to resettle asylum seekers, yet they refuse to take up these offers, despite this detention being unnecessarily cruel and despite it costing tens of millions of dollars each year. But unnecessary cruelty is a hallmark of this government when it comes to treatment of asylum seekers.

I have spoken before in this place about the situation of Priya, Nades, Kopika and Tharunicaa: the Biloela family. This family has been held in detention for years, including in isolation on Christmas Island. It was only after Tharunicaa got very sick with a blood infection that the government removed them from Christmas Island. This is the level of humanity of this government; it takes a little girl ending up in hospital for some degree of decency to be shown. And of course it is only some degree, because this family is still in community detention in Perth and cannot return to Biloela. But the community of Biloela have made it clear that they love and support this family, and that they're valued members of their community. They want them back as valued members of their community, but, despite this government having the power to rectify the situation at any time, they continue to separate the Biloela family from their community. It is time to bring them home to Bilo.

That brings me to another very important part of this motion: that this House 'applauds the significant contribution migrants and asylum seekers make to our economy, our democracy, and our vibrant, multicultural community'. It is so important that we recognise this. Biloela wants their family back because they work in their community and they contribute to community life—and that happens right across our country. You wouldn't hear about it if you listened to this government, if you heard the fear that is pushed out from this government. But it certainly happens in my community, where we appreciate the contribution that refugees and asylum seekers make locally.

There are so many groups in my community who work on behalf of supporting refugees and asylum seekers, and I want to thank them all. I thank the Montmorency Asylum Seekers Support Group, who are in constant contact with me about individual cases that they think need following up on because they're concerned about the conditions these asylum seekers are being detained in, and about broader issues of policy around how we are unnecessarily cruel under this government. I thank Jagajaga Grandmothers for Refugees, who also speak up. I thank Welcome to Eltham, a real example of what can be achieved locally. They supported Syrian and other refugees to be settled successfully into our local community and to be welcomed.

These are the success stories. These are the people who care. These are the people this government should be listening to, and this is what should be happening across this country. It is what would be happening if it were not for the needless and pointless cruelty of this Morrison government.

Debate adjourned.

See this speech in context