Andrew Giles (Scullin, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Immigration, Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

Deputy Speaker Claydon, I think this is my first opportunity to congratulate you on your elevation. It's great to see you sitting in that chair as Deputy Speaker, and I look forward to the work that you will do in the chair and in the broader responsibilities you have for this parliament.

I thank the member for Warringah for putting this motion before the House. I think it is fair to say that it is the first genuine matter of public importance that has been put before the House in this, the 47th parliament.

I also note that she has taken the House to a number of elements of Labor's national platform. Let me be very clear: we are determined—and, as minister responsible for many of these issues, I am determined—to implement all of the aspects of the platform. I say to the member for Warringah and, indeed, to all of the members of the crossbench, with many of whom I've had the opportunity to start discussions about these matters and engage about their concerns and their ideas—including the member for Clark, of course—that I am keen to work with them. I am determined to change the tone of debate on these issues. It is probably the case that we are not always going to agree about every aspect of this very challenging area of public policymaking, but I am determined that no more, as the member for Warringah has just said, will vulnerable human beings be used as political footballs in this place or more broadly in the political debate in Australia. It has been coarsened for too long. That must end. It does end.

The Prime Minister and the Minister for Climate Change and Energy have talked about ending the climate wars, and it looks like we are making real progress in this parliament to do that. We also need to do something very similar so that we can work on playing the role that Australia must play as an exemplar in the context of the world in which we live—the world that is beset by the awful conflict in Ukraine, the terrible circumstances in Afghanistan and circumstances across the world which mean that today there are more people forcibly displaced than at any other time in human history. That is a call to action domestically but also a call for constructive engagement regionally and globally. That is something that I think every member of the House should be involved in and concerned for.

The member for Warringah spoke very effectively about her meeting with Betelhem and Ismail. I didn't meet with Betelhem, but I did meet with Ismail and with Thanush, a young man who I've met with on many occasions, and I bore witness to their experiences. I say this in respect of the issues about those people in offshore detention: 10 years ago, the then Prime Minister of New Zealand, John Key, made an offer that that group of people be resettled. Had that offer been accepted, every single one of those people that have been resettled and would have been rebuilding their lives productively in New Zealand. Of course, there are many who are also doing that in the United States right now. These are things that should have been addressed many, many years ago. I am appreciative that the government of New Zealand's offer was lately accepted by the former government, and I have been pleased to be in discussions with Minister Wood. I know Minister O'Neil has also been in discussions with our counterparts in New Zealand to make sure that that very generous offer can move forward in an expeditious manner so people can rebuild their lives.

I'm conscious also that the matter of public importance before the House deals with the detention of refugees—and, I think it's fair to say, people seeking asylum as well as refugees—who are on shore in the immigration detention network. Can I say this: the state of the network is something that is of great concern to me. It is also of great concern to me—as it was in opposition, it is now in government—that people should be held in immigration detention as a matter of last resort. That is something that we called for in opposition. It's something that I'm working my way towards as a member of this government. But that also requires me to think about those people who are for the moment required to be in held immigration detention facilities. I should point out that there are fewer people in those facilities now than there were at the election of this government.

There are some concerning reports that have been put to me about conditions and incidents in detention, all of which I take with the utmost seriousness, including, of course, the tragedy in Yongah Hill about six weeks ago, which caused me to visit that centre and see for myself the conditions there. I did so after being briefed by the Commonwealth Ombudsman. In the exercise of their responsibilities to provide oversight for the network, they have made a number of recommendations which we're working through. They are very sensible recommendations which deserve serious attention. The opportunity to engage with the Ombudsman is important to me.

They are, of course, not the only body with a responsibility in this regard. I've also met with the Australian Human Rights Commission to work through some of their concerns and to consider some of their feedback about how we can do a better job at ensuring that anyone who is in the network is safe at all times and their human rights are consistently protected and upheld. I've also met with the Red Cross to work through some of the issues and with organisations that look to the specific needs and concerns of the minority of immigration detainees who are women. There are some particular concerns there that require some further work on the part of government. I have also met, of course, with the UNHCR to work through the issues they have in this regard, as well as engaging with them on their ideas around some of the concerns about regional processing, which the member for Warringah has stepped us through.

These are all significant issues that require work. I'd like that work to be a collaborative process, in the spirit with which this motion has been brought forward. I think, Member for Warringah, that you and I have some time to discuss these matters later in the week, and I'm sure that will be an ongoing dialogue—a respectful dialogue—that I hope can also involve other members of the crossbench and, of course, members of the Greens. I should say that I've been pleased to engage with Senator McKim too, who has portfolio responsibilities in that regard.

These issues that are put before the House now are of concern to the people that I represent and to many of my colleagues and friends here. They are matters that have been of concern to me since long before I was elected to this place. These are issues that are within the capacity of this government—and this parliament—to substantially advance, particularly if we are all prepared to look at the interests of vulnerable human beings seeking our help, on the one hand, and the broader questions that go to our national interest and maintaining a secure border on the other.

These are issues that sometimes raise some very complex and challenging policy questions, but the politics of this needn't be challenging. If we can walk away from the use of these people as political collateral, that work, that shared responsibility in this place to achieve more durable solutions more quickly, will be so much easier. We will be better as a parliament for that, and we will be so much better as a community. That is something that I am determined to do.

I started my remarks by talking about the tone of this debate. It is a debate that has coarsened us as a nation. I think we have to reflect on that. We have to reflect, all of us in this place, on what has happened in our society and our politics since September 2001—since the time of the Tampa and all the other associated events.

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