Julie Owens (Parramatta, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I was shocked last week to hear the shadow minister for immigration, Scott Morrison, and the shadow minister for foreign affairs, Julie Bishop, declaring that if elected to government they would return all Sri Lankan asylum seeker boats to Sri Lanka without first testing any refugee claims. I was appalled to hear the shadow minister for immigration and citizenship repeat his statement in the House this week.

The act of turning a boat back is itself dangerous. We have already heard from the Navy about the dangers of this policy and we saw the results in the Howard years, when people learned very early to scuttle their boats rather than be turned around. But perhaps more outrageous is to declare by their statements that there are no legitimate reasons for any person from Sri Lanka to seek asylum. Or perhaps they simply do not care if they send back a legitimate refugee. According to the Human Rights Law Centre, this new policy:

… would expose at least some asylum seekers to a real risk of torture, persecution or other flagrant human rights violations and therefore violate Australia’s non-refoulement obligations under international law;

These statements by the opposition, their heartless policy and their complete disregard of our international obligations are of profound concern to many people in my electorate. I represent a diverse and quite wonderful electorate. Within it are many Tamils, some from India and many others from Sri Lanka. I also represent Sinhalese and a few Buddhists from Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka is a country that has endured decades of brutal conflict, with some terrible behaviour on both sides of that conflict. An estimated 100,000 Sinhalese and Tamil civilians lost their lives in the nearly four decades of conflict between 1972 and 2009. As I said, we know that terrible acts were committed by both sides in that conflict over those four decades.

We all hoped the circumstances would improve. I have stood with my local community in hope and despair, and hope again and despair again. Yet there is credible evidence that arbitrary arrests, detention, disappearances, torture and extrajudicial killings remain widespread in Sri Lanka.

We know the path to reconciliation will be long. We know that the stories from within the Tamil community in Sri Lanka paint a picture that is far from rosy and certainly would not support the opposition's claims that there is no reason for any Sri Lankan to seek asylum. My colleague Ed Husic, from the electorate of Chifley, and Michelle Rowland, from Greenway, both spoke last week on this appalling situation. Ed Husic drew the House's attention to the position of some of our allies on this. Shortly before the visit by the coalition shadow ministers, a three-member US delegation travelled to Sri Lanka to discuss progress in implementing the recommendations of Sri Lanka's own official investigation into the war, including the prosecution of persons on both sides suspected of killing civilians during the war. But since returning from Sri Lanka the delegation has reported such a level of dissatisfaction with progress that it has announced it would repeat its action of last March and sponsor a resolution at the UNHCR urging Sri Lanka to implement the recommendations of its own investigation. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State James Moore has since confirmed the US will sponsor a procedural resolution against Sri Lanka at the March 2013 sessions of the UNHCR. Yet our representatives from the coalition came to a completely different conclusion. They did not find any reason why a Tamil would seek asylum. Julie Bishop, in particular, stated that view publicly in response to a question from Fran Kelly.

My Tamil community has talked to me about their concern for Tamils in Sri Lanka. They are also concerned that a growing proportion of recent Sri Lankans who are seeking asylum are doing so purely for economic reasons. They are concerned about that, just as the government is. They and I would hope that our asylum-seeker efforts could be focused on those most in need and not tied up and distracted by people seeking a backdoor way into our country. The government does return people who are not found to be genuine refugees and has returned almost 1,000 people to Sri Lanka since 13 August last year, when they were found not to be genuine refugees. Others returned voluntarily, and Sri Lankan boat arrivals have currently eased to a relative trickle.

As uncomfortable as it might make some Australians, there is one line that we should not cross. It is a line that the opposition shadow ministers have suggested we do cross. A civilised society does not return people to likely death or torture. It beggars belief that after 40 years of brutal conflict and 100,000 deaths there would not be people in Sri Lanka after so short a time who would fear for their lives and have genuine reasons to seek asylum. As a civilised people we can show compassion to a war-torn people and assess claims for asylum without the politics of the issue and offer it to those who are in genuine need.