Max Chandler-Mather (Griffith, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That all words after "That" be omitted with a view to substituting the following words: "the House declines to give the bill a second reading and notes that:

(1) the Government is seeking to rush through legislation that will punish people, based on what country they come from and harm people seeking asylum who have already been subjected to a cruel and broken system; and

(2) this bill is nothing more than an election tactic by the Government, trying to outflank the Coalition in a race to the bottom on immigration, which will only punish migrants and whip up racism".

We have been given 40 minutes to debate the Migration Amendment (Removal and Other Measures) Bill. The consequences of this legislation will see the minister able to go to a mum who has fled Iran and who is desperately trying to keep her kids in Australia to be safe and tell them, 'You have to sign passport papers for your kids to send them and you back to Iran, where you could face persecution—'even death, in some countries—'and if you do not sign those papers, we will give you a mandatory minimum year sentence in prison and up to five years.' This is outrageous. This is worse than anything that Dutton or Morrison ever came up with under the previous government.

There are people who have been in Australia for a decade, who have raised their kids here, who will be subject to this law. It's deeply, deeply outrageous. Labor, in their own platform said: 'Labor opposes mandatory sentencing. This practice does not reduce crime but does undermine the independence of the judiciary, leads to unjust outcomes and is often discriminatory in practice.' What are all the Labor backbenchers going to say to all their members? What are they going to say to them? These are Labor members who thought they were supporting a party that opposed mandatory sentencing. If you're a Labor member watching this right now, if you're a Labor backbencher watching this right now, what actually does your party stand for?

Labor is rushing this bill through in 40 minutes with no chance for debate, no chance for scrutiny. Instead what we're going to see are families broken up by this bill, lives destroyed, people facing desperate and unfair persecution. This is a bill that will exact untold cruelty on people seeking asylum. It will give the minister outrageous powers. What will happen when we have some future Liberal government where Dutton has these powers? What's going to happen then? This government should be deeply ashamed. The cruelty this will exact on people is unfathomable. You should all be ashamed of breaking your promise not only to your electorate but to your members as well.

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