Malcolm Turnbull (Wentworth, Liberal Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is again to the Prime Minister. I refer the Prime Minister to the arrival of the fourth unauthorised boat in three days. Will he confirm that 52 boats carrying almost 2,300 people have now arrived since he weakened Australia’s border protection laws? How has the government’s handling of the Oceanic Viking shambles discouraged people smugglers from bringing asylum seekers to Australia?

Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The honourable member’s question goes to the motivation of people smugglers and whether people smuggling is driven by domestic or international factors, or a combination of the above. That is essentially the essence of the honourable member’s question. I say to the honourable member that the government’s border protection policy, which is hard line on people smugglers and humane in its dealings with asylum seekers, is precisely the policy we took to the last election, it is the policy we have implemented since the last election and it is the one we will adhere to in the future.

We are dealing with a range of push factors in Sri Lanka, which the foreign minister is acutely familiar with, having visited Sri Lanka I believe last week and spoken with the government about what is occurring there. What is occurring there is that we have something in the order of 260,000 displaced Tamils within the island because of the military actions and the civil war which occurred there earlier this year. What the foreign minister is seeking to do with the World Bank and others is to contribute to better humanitarian circumstances for those individual Tamils and their communities in Sri Lanka in a humanitarian fashion, to assist with their resettlement within the country. Secondly, on the operational push factors, I was recently in New Delhi and spoke with Prime Minister Singh about the 130,000 Tamils who have now gone from the island of Sri Lanka to India where they have temporary refuge. Thirdly, what the Indian Prime Minister and others have discussed with me is the fact that we have now had thousands upon thousands of Sri Lankan Tamils go to places like Germany, France, Canada and North America because we are dealing, as an international community, with a humanitarian crisis within Sri Lanka which has been occasioned by the civil war in that country.

On the operation of our policy in particular, the honourable member—for example, I do not recall in his recent press conferences—has not referred to the numbers of Sri Lankans who have, thus far, been sent back to Sri Lanka through the operation of our normal immigration policy. Once they have been through processing and it has been determined that individuals are not compatible with the criteria laid down by the refugee convention, we have done as we have said in policy we would do, which is to dispatch individual Sri Lankans back to that country. Most recently—in fact, I believe only several days ago—two-thirds of a group of 50 Sri Lankans who arrived in this country in April were returned to Sri Lanka, given that it has been determined that they were not refugees. In fact, a group of six men who were involved in protest action while in detention were removed from Christmas Island on Saturday and arrived safely in Colombo that night. Thirty others from that same boat have now returned to Sri Lanka voluntarily after their claims for protection were thoroughly assessed.

Sharman Stone (Murray, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Immigration and Citizenship) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, I rise on a point of order as to relevance: the question was asking how the government’s shambolic handling of the Oceanic Viking had—

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Murray will resume her seat. The Prime Minister is responding to the question.

Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

We always welcome questions from the member for Murray but even more do we welcome her interventions at the dispatch box. I say to those opposite who ask questions about the operation of our policy that, (1), it deals with the push factors; (2), it also deals with transit countries; and, (3), we are dealing with how we operate a policy in sending people back to Sri Lanka and other countries, people who do not meet the criteria laid down under the refugees convention.

Concerning our transit countries, can I also say this: our cooperation with the government of Malaysia—and I notice that this has not been the subject of any press commentary from those opposite because it is a further step forward—our cooperation with the government in Kuala Lumpur has resulted in the disruption of some 15 attempts of people smuggling involving roughly 550 people. We are very grateful for the cooperation of the government there.

Over the weekend, I was informed by Prime Minister Najib of Malaysia that we would continue to expand our cooperation dealing with people smuggling. Furthermore, for the information of the House, the Prime Minister of Malaysia informed me that the Malaysian government has now decided, for the first time, to criminalise people smuggling in that country. This again is a reflection of the work which is underway between us and the Malaysian government, as indeed it is underway with the Indonesian government as well.

Finally, when it goes to the actual success of government policy in interruptions, I say this: so far some 88 to 90 interruptions have occurred as a result of the direct cooperation between the Australian government, the Indonesian government, the Malaysian government and other governments within the region, interruptions which have involved some several thousands of individuals seeking to come to this country by the agency of people smugglers. We are dealing with one set of rolling operations after another, as you would normally do, as would any responsible government of Australia do. We are adhering to our obligations under international humanitarian law as laid down in the convention. We are maintaining a border protection policy with added resources and added investment in our maritime surveillance activities, at the same time working closely with our partners in the region. This is what governments have sought to do in the past and they will seek to do so in the future. It is what governments around the region are doing. It was also a challenge which confronted the previous government when they had some 250,000 boats come to this country carrying nearly 15,000 individuals. They were problems faced in the past, they are problems being faced now and they will be problems in the future. Our policy is a consistent policy; those opposite do not have a policy at all.