Ms Anna Burke (Chisholm, Deputy-Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Today I rise to present a petition that has been accepted by the Petitions Committee. It gives me great pleasure to do so. The petition was orchestrated by the Uniting Church in Australia Synod of Victoria and Tasmania and the principal petitioner is Mark Zirnsak, who works in their social justice unit. Mark is an amazing fellow. I have worked with him for many years and it is a pleasure to be involved in his many social justice issues and pursuits.

Two thousand and sixty-four individuals have signed this petition. I know many within my electorate are very involved in the cause of asylum seekers within the community. It gives me enormous pleasure to be able to say that at least one of the requests in this petition will come to fruition. We will be seeing legislation soon in respect of repealing the provisions to be able to collect bills from asylum seekers who have been held in detention.

This has been an appalling situation for too long. We have actually presented to people who have been found to be refugees a bill for their detention within a detention centre. It has been an abomination. I have had many individuals come to my office who have subsequently been found to be refugees who have been presented with these bills. Their lives cannot go on with this huge liability hanging over their heads—they do not know where to go. Some of them have been involved in other legal action but have not been able to get assistance through measures such as legal aid because of this liability hanging over their heads.

I know that the Uniting Church community and many churches within my electorate have been supporting these individuals. Mark Zirnsak and I, and many of my church communities, have been working tirelessly with a group of refugees under what is known as a bridging visa E situation. They are released into the community, but under the terms of their visa they are not allowed to work. Literally, we allow these people into the community and leave them to starve because they have no work rights, no access to social security benefits and no access to Medicare. Many individuals in my community are housing, feeding, clothing and supporting these individuals. Some of these individuals have then found and been granted work rights, and they have these enormous bills hanging over their heads. I have also had individuals who have chosen to return to their country of origin and have still been presented with this enormous bill for their detention.

It has been unjust and I am applauding the government, particularly Senator Chris Evans, for moving on these issues. It has been part of Labor Party policy for some time to move in respect of these issues, and it is through the great work of church organisations and other concerned citizens within our community that we have reflected on the plight of these people who have come from horrendous situations—from war-torn conflict and from things we cannot begin to imagine.

In this House the other day we were honoured to have Paris Aristotle from the Victorian Foundation for Torture and Trauma Survivors. He gav us a brief outline of the circumstances of some of the individuals they deal with who have come into our community—particularly those who have come recently from the African communities. What they have witnessed in their short lives has been appalling. Most of us would never expect that to happen to women and children in particular, and they are then dealing with migrating and making their home in Australia with all these other pressures around them. It is no wonder that sometimes these people find it very difficult to comprehend that we actually do want to make them welcome, when the government has treated them in some cases fairly appallingly.

I want to thank the many petitioners who have signed it, and present the petition to the parliament.

The petition read as follows—

Mandatory detention of asylum seekers

To the Honourable the Speaker and Members of the House of Representatives assembled in Parliament

The petition of certain citizens of Australia draws to the attention of the House:

The Australian Government currently has in place a system of mandatory detention of asylum seekers who arrive on-shore seeking asylum in Australia. Some of these Asylum Seekers, who after presenting their case and going through the long process of assessment, are officially recognised as a refugee and given permanent protection under the Humanitarian Program, are still found to be liable for their costs of detention.

Furthermore, cases where the Australian Government has initially refused to grant refugee status to someone - who a court later determines is a refugee and undergoes prolonged detention as a result of the initial refusal - appear to be billed for a larger amount, as a result of the prolonged detention resulting from the Government’s error.

Your petitioners therefore ask the House to:

• Review the policy of the mandatory detention of asylum seekers, as it currently operates in Australia with a view to make any detention the minimum necessary to ensure the asylum seeker is not a threat to the health or safety of the community.
• Abolish by law any billing of asylum seekers found to be refugees or assessed as needing protection in Australia for the cost of any detention they have been subjected to.

From 2,064 citizens

Petition received.