Kerry Nettle (NSW, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

The scandalous treatment of Cornelia Rau and the discovery that Vivian Solon had been detained and deported continue to raise serious questions in the minds of the public about the competence and the humanity of Australia’s immigration system. The almost universal call for a royal commission to investigate a department that has been described as being out of control and that seriously damages the lives of so many Australians was ignored by the government. Instead, two private inquiries with limited terms of reference were set up. But even these two inquiries, the Palmer inquiry and the Comrie inquiry, indicated there were ‘systemic failures’ and ‘cultural problems’ within the department of immigration.

Due to the government’s refusal to establish a royal commission, the Senate inquiry was set up. The evidence that came before the Senate inquiry, including over 200 submissions, was a litany of disasters—disasters and tragedies where lives were significantly impacted on or destroyed by the actions of this government and this department. The evidence indicated that the cases of Cornelia Rau and Vivian Solon were not isolated incidents. Throughout the inquiry, we heard of widespread instances where such behaviour had gone almost unnoticed and unreported because it was occurring in remote or offshore detention centres. The evidence indicated that the department of immigration was failing to administer the Migration Act in a way that afforded people fairness, justice and proper process. More disturbingly, it was failing in its duty of care to the people in its custody. Indeed, there was compelling evidence that the department and the private companies administering the immigration detention centres were administering the act in a way that was hostile to people and that in some instances led to their abuse.

The evidence also indicated that parts of the Migration Act itself contribute to the failures of the department, particularly the failure of some sections of the department to ensure that officials can use appropriate discretion and commonsense in making the decisions that they make. Parts of the Migration Act that contribute to these failures by the department are section 189, which deals with reasonable suspicion in requiring people to be detained; section 501, which requires people to be deported; and the provisions in the act that deal with temporary protection visas. A further failure of the act is that there is no proper complementary protection scheme in place.

The evidence to the Senate inquiry came under two broad themes. The first relates to the cultural attitudes within the department. We were told of the culture of suspicion and hostility towards asylum seekers—of attempts by department officials to try to catch people out, to look and probe for inconsistencies and to search for reasons to reject applications.

The second theme in the evidence brought before the inquiry was the failure of the policy of mandatory detention and the impact that it has on people’s lives, particularly on their mental health. What was meant to be detention for purely administrative purposes has turned into a system of punitive detention without any of the same safeguards that exist within the criminal justice system. The power to detain unlawful noncitizens has meant that cultural hostility towards asylum seekers has manifested itself in cruel behaviour toward detainees behind razor wire in remote immigration detention centres. Instead of the department making impartial, unbiased and well-considered decisions and treating the individuals in its care with dignity and respect, the policies of this government have led to a virtual criminalisation of asylum seekers.

The Australian Greens lay the blame for the criminalisation of asylum seekers directly on this government. The Prime Minister, the former minister, Mr Ruddock, and the current minister, Minister Vanstone, all bear responsibility for the current cultural and policy problems of the department of immigration. The trails from Cornelia Rau suffering untreated schizophrenia in the Baxter isolation cell and Vivian Solon enduring her injuries in a hospice in the Philippines lead directly to the Prime Minister’s door.

The exploitation of xenophobia by this government and the demonisation of asylum seekers and refugees has led to the culture of hostility that exists within the department of immigration. Continual public comments, some of which have been found to be untrue, from the Prime Minister and the ministers about the security threat posed by boat people and the need to repel and deter asylum seekers, and the discrediting of asylum seekers as non-genuine or queue jumpers, have directly led to the culture problems evident in the recent actions of departmental officials in the department of immigration. It should be no surprise that the bureaucracy have taken on cultural attitudes that have been so vehemently and stridently expressed through government ministers and have subsequently administered the act in the way in which they thought the government desired.