Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Immigration and Citizenship) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My thoughts, like the thoughts of the Leader of Opposition and I am sure all members of this House, will be with Australians who are today going towards a site in the seas to our north to assist in yet another rescue and recovery operation. I am disappointed that we do not have the opportunity here, because of the stance taken by the government over standing orders of this House, to enable a very important bill to be debated here.

I believe the consensus of all members of this parliament—with the exception of the Greens—in both this House and the other place is that offshore processing should take place in the at least 148 countries that have signed the United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees. Support for that was outlined by none less than the Prime Minister before the last election. She stated before the last election that it was the government's policy to only send people for offshore processing to a country that had signed the refugee convention. Before we leave this place there is the opportunity to pass a bill that reflects that consensus and gives the government the protections and the powers to restore and strengthen control on our borders—to ensure that our borders are strong, uncompromised and unweakened by the continuation of the policies that we have seen since the proven measures of the Howard government were disestablished. I call on those opposite to allow that bill to be considered. (Time expired)

Adam Bandt (Melbourne, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I speak on behalf of everyone when I say no-one wants to see people dying at sea. It is with heavy hearts that we receive the latest news. People have the right to safety and security for themselves and their families and, if they cannot find that in their homelands, then we know that people will flee. We have signed up to conventions to ensure that as they are fleeing—as they take their families and seek safety—they will be treated properly, with respect, safety and security. The law says those standards should apply. Later this afternoon, we are going to have a choice. Are we going to ask ourselves and all of our neighbours to lift the level of protection to meet those standards we have signed up to so that people do not wait decades in Indonesian camps—where there are currently only two United Nations human rights commissioners processing their applications—and where, after waiting for years, they get so desperate that they decide to take to rickety boats, putting their own and their families' lives at risk in hopes of safety?

Are we going to uphold that convention so those people do not spend those decades waiting in limbo or are we going to rip up the basic legal standards we have signed up to? I tell you this, Madam Deputy Speaker Burke, if we rip up those standards ourselves and do not abide by those conventions, there is no way we can look at our neighbours with straight faces and ask them to improve their standards of treatment for refugees and asylum seekers.