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

As I was saying, the amendment I'll move at that time calls on the government to ensure all applicants can equally access a fair and just review. For this to be possible, it accordingly calls on the government to remove the separate set of procedures under the Migration Act 1958 from the bill so that procedures that apply to applicants generally also apply to migrant and refugee applicants.

In the words of North Sydney constituent and long-term human rights advocate, Professor Mary Crock:

… where it is separate … for migration applicants, the code is always more punitive and restrictive than the general ART provisions. It is very disappointing that migrants should continue to be treated as persons with inferior procedural entitlements. Specifically, at a time when almost one in two Australians were either born overseas or have an overseas born parent, we should stop seeing migrants as less worthy of procedural entitlements just because they are non-citizens. This is most especially the case where applications can involve matters of life and death—or profound disruption to human rights, including the right to live with a partner and immediate family.

As the representative of a richly diverse community, I know the benefits are immeasurable when our differences are truly embraced. Yet at this time our diversity is being challenged to the very core.

The latest Mapping Social Cohesion report found that, following a polarising referendum debate and amid rising community tensions over the war in Gaza, social cohesion is at its lowest level in 16 years. The report indicates that significant numbers of people experience prejudice and discrimination routinely in everyday life and that attitudes to government and democracy in this country are now politically charged and polarised. In this context, why are we seeking to establish yet another separate standard of treatment for those asking for protection and a better life in this country through this legislation? We cannot continue on this trajectory. We need to come back to our values as a nation, back to community, back to embracing diversity and back to basic human rights.

The same standards must apply to all, which means all people must be treated fairly and not discriminated against because of their race, colour, gender, language, religion, political beliefs, status or any other unlawful reason. Citizens or noncitizens, everyone deserves to be treated with dignity and respect for their basic human rights, and we must ensure this core belief is upheld in this new legislation, for the power of human rights is in their universality. Every human being is born equal and deserving of justice, and equality before the law, a right enshrined in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, is essential for fair decision-making.

We have an opportunity to do good here—to begin to redeem our international reputation—and I encourage all of us in this place to see that opportunity for what it is and embrace it. The removal of carve-outs for migrant and refugee applicants would ensure equality before the law, providing full, fair and equal protection for all. I look forward to moving my second reading amendment when the time is appropriate.

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