Rob Mitchell (McEwen, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Immigration and Citizenship. How is the government delivering on its plan for a regional cooperation framework on people smuggling and irregular migration? What role have visits to Malaysia by Australian officials and members played in supporting discussions with the Malaysian government on the proposed transfer agreement? How has this approach been received and what is the government's response?

Chris Bowen (McMahon, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Immigration and Citizenship) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for McEwen for his question. The Gillard government is delivering on a regional framework to both break the people smugglers' business model and improve protection outcomes for genuine refugees across the region. As part of this, of course, we have reached an agreement with Malaysia that will see 800 asylum seekers transferred to Malaysia while Australia resettles 4,000 refugees over the next four years. This will see Australia's humanitarian intake increase to its highest level since Labor was last in office, in 1996. That is something this side of the House is very proud of. That is an essential part of our framework: resettling more refugees who have been waiting for resettlement mandated by the United Nations convention on refugees. The opposition says that this is unfair. The opposition says that we are resettling too many refugees from Malaysia and that is unfair. We disagree. We say that it would be unfair not to. I am asked about the role that visits to Malaysia have played in this process. It is the case that in the nine months I have been Minister for Immigration and Citizenship I have been to Malaysia four times to discuss, with not only ministerial counterparts but Malaysian line agencies, models which could improve our system of breaking the people smugglers' business model. I have been discussing with the UNHCR and the IOM in Malaysia protections that can be put in place for the 800 people we are transferring to Malaysia.

I saw on the weekend that the member for Cook has announced he will go to Malaysia as well. I thought: 'Maybe this is a good thing. Maybe this shows he is reconsidering his position. Maybe if he goes to Malaysia he might change his mind about the government resettling 4,000 people from Malaysia over the next four years. He might think that is a good idea. He might see, if there are appropriate protections in place, that the transfer of people from Australia to Malaysia is a good thing. This might be a genuine fact-finding mission.' But, alas, it will shock the House to learn that that is not the case. This is not a genuine fact-finding mission. It is a stunt. He has said that, no matter what he sees in Malaysia, it will not change his mind. I have said that this is a stunt that will go down in the Guinness Book of World Records. It is hard to think of a bigger stunt than going to another country to attack this government and that government, except perhaps for calling a plebiscite which is not going to change your mind either. That might be bigger. That is an argument the House might want to have.

This is such a negative opposition that it is not good enough to stay in Australia and attack this government; they go to another country and attack their government as well. That is how negative this opposition has become. This underlines the hypocrisy of the opposition. This hypocrisy goes to several levels. We know that the member for Cook has suggested a transfer arrangement, not with Malaysia—in fairness—but with Iran. We know that. But there has been an interesting development. Some honourable members would have seen the member for Cook on Lateline last night. For those who did not, I feel obliged to inform the House that he has backtracked on the agreement with Iran and said:

It wouldn't be a bilateral deal involving Australia or even one that Australia would advance.

When in November he said:

In my view, Australia’s participation in a regional solution for Afghanistan should seek to trade off Australia taking more refugees …

He went on to say that this would deal with asylum claims through illegal entry to Australia. It sounds like a deal that Australia would be involved in to me, but maybe I am wrong about that or maybe he is backtracking because he has not been able to negotiate protections with President Ahmadinejad, or maybe he is about to announce a fact-finding mission to Tehran. We wait to see with interest.