Chris Evans (WA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answers given by the Minister for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs (Senator Vanstone) to questions without notice asked by opposition senators today, relating to unauthorised arrivals and other immigration matters.

It is a very important day for this parliament. Anyone who saw the humiliating capitulation of the Prime Minister at his press conference today will understand that an event of some importance has occurred. The Prime Minister decided to cut and run today. He was not prepared to bring on the migration bill for debate in the Senate. The Prime Minister talked about respecting the authority of the parliament but he refused to bring the bill on. He pulled it off the agenda last fortnight and again this fortnight, after months of internal debate inside the coalition parties. They have decided not to bring on the bill and not to bring on the debate. It is a humiliating capitulation on the Prime Minister’s behalf. The fact that he could not convince his own party to support him makes him a very diminished political figure. His authority has clearly been undermined by his own troops. The arrogance with which this government sought to treat the parliament and its own party room has been exposed. I offer my congratulations to those within the Liberal Party and National Party coalition who were prepared to stand up to the Prime Minister.

This was ill-conceived policy. It was policy that the Prime Minister described at an earlier time as ‘ludicrous’, when it was put to him when the last migration bill was being debated. It was described by Minister Vanstone as ‘ridiculous’. So ‘ludicrous’ and ‘ridiculous’ were the views of the Prime Minister and the minister about a proposition that they subsequently sought to bring before the parliament. That was what was contained in the migration bill regarding unauthorised arrivals that the Prime Minister was forced to withdraw today.

While I leave it for others to comment on the Prime Minister’s capitulation, it is important for this Senate to note that this is the third strike against Senator Vanstone. Minister Vanstone is unable to deliver on anything to do with her department. If you look at the matter of the administration of the department, we have had the infamy of the treatment of Cornelia Rau, who was diagnosed with mental health issues and locked up for a long period, and the appalling deportation of an Australian citizen, Vivian Alvarez Solon. She was deported because of the failure to identify her as an Australian citizen, and the department, even after discovering that she was an Australian citizen and that she had been deported, failed to act to seek her return to this country. The administration of the department has been terrible, and everyone of a reasonable mind in Australia thought that the minister ought to have gone because of it. She ought to have resigned or been sacked.

Today we have had that terrible administration culminate in complete disarray inside the government on the question of unauthorised arrivals. We have had three or four different policies in the last six months: we had the tough policy, we had the soft policy and then we had the Indonesian policy. The Indonesian policy has now been rejected because the government is unable to get its own party to support it. But where does that leave the minister? Totally diminished; totally without authority. She has largely been missing in the debate. We know the policy is largely run by the Prime Minister.

Now we have the section 457 visa fiasco, with the minister arrogantly dismissing any concerns raised about the exploitation of migrant workers; the fact that these people are being brought in to do unskilled work, not skilled work as required under the visa; the fact that they are being used to undermine Australian wages and conditions because they have not been paid proper award rates—or even AWA rates; and the fact that they are being forced to work extra hours. We have three issues running inside the department.