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

I address my question to the Prime Minister. I refer the Prime Minister to his comments yesterday in the House where he identified the government’s defeatist response to the surge in people smuggling, and I quote him:

… the department of immigration has … sourced some 70 demountables to increase capacity further …

Will the Prime Minister inform the House of what is his plan to stop the surge in people smuggling, rather than just giving up and sending makeshift accommodation to an already overcrowded detention centre on Christmas Island?

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

Mr Speaker, the great thing about the—

Tony Windsor (New England, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, I rise on a point of order. Could I draw your attention to the elephant in the room?

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

The Prime Minister has the call.

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

Thank you, Mr Speaker. I thank the honourable member for her question and also, for the interjection on his part, the member for New England as he reminds us that in fact there is an unresolved question before the parliament. Again, it is surprising that some 30 days have elapsed, I believe, since we have had any question in this place on climate change. The honourable member asks a question about preparations on Christmas Island and I am sad that she did not follow completely the immediate aftermath of the whistling performance which was given from the press gallery. It should have been better synchronised with the dog whistling in which she proposes to engage.

Opposition Members:

Oh!

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

Oh, the public gallery. My apologies to the press gallery. Can I say, in response to the honourable member’s question, that presumably the Howard government built the Christmas Island detention facility at a time at which they were claiming, having built an 800- or 900-bed facility, that their policies were so successful that such a facility would not be needed in the future. Why on earth did they build it? Was it simply a flight of fancy? Was it simply because it might come in handy one day? Was it because some of the hardheads in the department of immigration thought, ‘Maybe one day what will happen is that we’ll have, because of security circumstances around the region and around the world, a need to have such a facility in preparation’? That is precisely the purpose for which the immigration authorities built the facility and the purpose to which we are putting it at present.

The other part of the honourable member’s question goes to practical measures. Can I say this to the honourable member in response to her question. When it comes to practical measures to deal with the challenges of asylum seekers and people smuggling, first and foremost I draw attention to the fact that in the last 12 months what we have seen is some 61 arrests of people smugglers, some 23 convictions of people smugglers and we have some 37 people smugglers of one category or another currently before the courts. Can I also draw the honourable member’s attention to the fact that, as far as disruptions of people-smuggling ventures are concerned, in the last 12 months—or at least since September 2008—we have had some 89 disruptions involving our friends and partners in Indonesia involving some 2,221 individuals and some 28 arrests. She asks further about practical measures. With the government of Malaysia we have so far engaged with 15 separate disruptions involving some 552 people and some six arrests. Also, in the case of Sri Lanka we have so far had some 12 separate disruptions involving 110 people and 18 arrests. Those opposite ask: what practical measures are you taking to deal with the challenge of people smuggling? I would suggest to those opposite that these actually constitute practical measures, because they are working with our friends and partners in the region to disrupt a significant people-smuggling operation right across our wider region. That is one arm of cooperation. The other is, of course, dealing with the challenges in source countries themselves. When it comes to dealing with source countries, those opposite would be familiar with the particular challenges we face in Sri Lanka. That is why the foreign minister, again as a practical course of action, in partnership with the World Bank and other international institutions, is working with the Sri Lankan authorities to assist with the resettlement of those who have been internally displaced within Sri Lanka back to their original place of domicile. Some 260,000 people have been dislodged. The challenge, therefore, in providing accommodation for those who need to be relocated is huge. That is why we are working with the IOM and other international organisations, including the World Bank.

Finally, I would say this to those opposite, and I go back to what I was saying before about the sheer numbers involved in this disturbance in Sri Lanka: 260,000 and 130,000 have gone across the water to India and you have some thousands and tens of thousands going to Europe, by one means or another, and into North America. The total number of arrivals in this country so far from Sri Lanka: some 600 to 700.