Kylea Tink (North Sydney, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

Let's be clear: successive governments, be they Liberal-National or Labor, have ideologically and doggedly pursued a secret, cruel and punitive immigration detention centre. For 30 years those on both sides of this place have enforced these policies, which have caused death, injuries and untold harm, violating Australia's international legal commitments and diminishing us as a nation and each of us on a human level. Today we see the continuation of these harmful policies.

I do not support the redesignation of Nauru as a regional processing centre. The 65 people seeking asylum who are currently held on Nauru do not deserve to face another 10 years of limbo being held in cruel, inhumane and degrading conditions. I met Betelhem Tibebu, human rights activist and survivor of offshore processing on Nauru, last year when the contract, which is based on a despicable business model, was renewed with the American prison company MTC in late 2022, the very one we are further facilitating today. She said: 'The conditions on Nauru are horrible. We lost our future, our dreams were stolen, and now this contract. People should be signing resettlement papers, not detention contracts. It is ten years and people are still there. They should be free, not hiring a new company, not redesignating a country, but giving people a proper life and medical treatment.'

In this context, in light of today's debate, let's talk about what's really urgent: 31,000 people, after more than 10 years, are still living on temporary protection visas and safe haven visas in our community, despite the Labor government's commitment made over eight months ago to provide permanent pathways to residency for these people. This is also after an election campaign commitment made by the Labor Party to end indefinite detention, bringing fair processing times back to within 90 days. What action have we seen on this? None. Yet today we've been asked to prioritise this motion as urgent. How can it be any more urgent than the issues that I've just fundamentally outlined?

Australians need and deserve the truth about the harm—financially, personally, legally and reputationally—that the immigration system has caused. I back calls from survivors and advocates like Behrouz Boochani, who, ironically, was in Parliament House today and who called for us as a parliament to be courageous. He called for a royal commission to investigate the real cost of this cruel regime. Only a royal commission can compel evidence that we may not wish to hear, but we must, whilst also providing an environment where those who have lived with the consequences of this system can speak their truth. The community chose independent representatives in this place and the other on the basis that we could pursue the conversations that neither of the major parties wish to have. A royal commission, free of the shackles of party politics and with a clear conscience on this issue, is what is warranted. It is beyond time for us as a parliament to turn the light on the Labor, Liberal, and National parties' rotten and cruel policy of indefinite, arbitrary detention of people who have sought Australia's protection and for that policy to come to an end and not to be extended for another 10 years.

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