Dai Le (Fowler, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

Unlike many people in this House, I believe I can speak from a very lived experience of being a refugee and being processed in offshore detention centres. I agree with the government that there must be some sort of processing in place for people who are seeking asylum, similar to what I had gone through before I arrived in Australia. I spent four years in refugee camps—Hong Kong camps, Philippines camps—waiting to be processed, waiting for a new life and waiting for safety. I know too well the hardships of waiting to be processed, and of sleeping on the floors, sharing rooms with hundreds—if not thousands—of refugees, but we were processed by the UNHCR, and we applied and waited to be accepted to come to Australia, so I know it's not easy. It's a very difficult and challenging issue. Immigration and refugee policies have often dominated headlines and been used as political leverage on all sides of politics. However, it's important to remember that behind the headlines of refugees and asylum seekers are lives at stake—there are families, mums, dads and children, like my mum and myself.

Now that I represent the diverse electorate of Fowler, I know that many in my community who have gone through the same process still have loved ones who have fled Syria, Iraq and Iran, and who are eagerly waiting to be processed—to this day. I agree with the government's stance that we need to make sure that those who enter our country are legitimate refugees, and that we do not encourage people smugglers who are profiteering off desperate people. But I do question the government's decision to sign a $420 million contract with an American prison company to run 'garrison and welfare' on the island. I believe this company, Management and Training Corporation, has previously been accused of gross negligence and security failures.

There have to be other solutions and models for processing people who are seeking asylum. The Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law says it costs $3.4 million to hold someone offshore on Nauru. The Refugee Council of Australia suggest offshore processing has cost the government $9.65 billion from July 2013 to the 2021-22 financial year. I support some form of processing, but in a fair way, because we do need to ensure genuine refugees can get the opportunity to be resettled. Continuing to use Nauru for offshore detention in its current state, keeping 65 people who, I believe, have been in detention for a long time—nearly 10 years—just does not make sense. The government has told us that those left on the island either don't qualify as refugees or they have been flagged as some sort of risk. I ask: why, then, are we still spending millions of dollars to keep them detained by an unscrupulous company? Both sides of politics and all sides of major political parties have used refugees and asylum seekers in scaremongering to our electorates. Refugees, like myself, have contributed greatly to this society—I am here, today, in this House. The Asylum Seeker Resource Centre reports that since 2013 there have been 14 deaths as a result of offshore detention on PNG and Nauru. There is overwhelming documentation of serious abuses, including child sexual abuse, medical negligence and high levels of self-harm, under the offshore detention system.

This is costly to our economy at a time when many Australians are facing a cost-of-living crisis. The government has had since October to find a better solution. I don't believe redesignating Nauru as an offshore processing facility is the way to go. I ask that the government really consider a new model and a new way to process asylum seekers.

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