Concetta Fierravanti-Wells (NSW, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Immigration and Shadow Parliamentary Secretary Assisting the Leader in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on this matter, which is of great importance to many in Australia as we see the growing surge of people smuggling. Two things are very clear: firstly, that the Labor government’s border protection policies have failed miserably; secondly, that the Labor government’s softening of border protection laws has given the green light to people smugglers.

In the last eight months we have seen 20 boats, with over 714 unauthorised arrivals on board, come to Australia. This is a clear result of the government softening its border protection regime in August last year. In August last year we saw the abolition of temporary protection visas and, low and behold, as soon as that happened we started to see this surge. That, of course, can be compared to the record in the Howard years. From 2002 to 2005, only one boat arrived on our shores. It is very clear that the Labor government’s change of direction is sending the wrong message to people smugglers. On this side, the coalition has been warning the government repeatedly since August last year that this very situation would arise—that the softening of our border protection regime would give a green light to people smugglers to come on down.

Let us look at what some of the asylum seekers themselves are saying. We heard directly from one of the asylum seekers in Indonesia in a report on the AM program on 24 April, which I would like to quote for the record. The report said:

‘Kevin Rudd—he change everything about refugee. If I go to Australia now, different, different. Maybe accepted. But when John Howard, president Australia, he said come back to Indonesia.’ He says Kevin Rudd won’t send him back to Indonesia and that’s why he’ll be getting on a boat again.

Then, of course, we look at what the Indonesian ambassador has to say on the issue. The Indonesian ambassador to Australia has said that people smugglers are using the changes in policy as a marketing tool. In an article in the Australian on 22 April, he said:

I think maybe the traffickers use this as a trial to organise more of flowing of the refugees, because they get the money for that.

This is because the price has gone up because they can now guarantee that that they do not have to spend time in detention, and so it is going to make it a lot easier for them to give the guarantee: ‘Yes, come on down, go on down to Australia. Spend a little bit of time in detention, but before you know it you’ll be out there.’ And let us look at the comments by Mr Steve Cook that were reported in the Australian on 1 December. Mr Cook, the International Organisation for Migration’s chief of mission in Indonesia, said:

People smugglers have clearly noted that there has been a change in policy and they’re testing the envelope.

Even our own Australian Federal Police has reportedly warned the government that its softening of border protection laws would encourage the people smugglers. I would call on this government to immediately release any advice that it has received, particularly from the Australia Federal Police, about the impact of the changes of the border protection regime. The Australian public are entitled to know and have security about border protection, but it is very clear that this change in direction and this change in policy and the softening of border protection has resulted in the very thing that the Australian public does not want—that is, more people arriving on our shores.

And how many more will be coming? How many are waiting for the opportunity? We have seen them arrive virtually every day. Every day we are seeing another lot of boat people coming to our country. And every person who arrives in this manner is one less person who has been waiting in a camp, properly processed by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, who will not have the opportunity of coming to this place, who will not be afforded the opportunity of being resettled in a country like Australia. That is really the sad situation here. But of course, the minister is very happy to say, ‘Oh, but nothing has changed.’ It has changed, Minister. It is very, very clear that from the moment you abolished temporary protection visas in August we suddenly started to see this surge. It is very clear that there has been a clear change in policy.

Let us look at some of the changes that this government has effected: the closure of Manus and Nauru offshore detention centres, the abolishing of the temporary protection visas and the expansion of appeal rights for asylum seekers. In my 20 years of working in the Australian Government Solicitor’s office, and over the many years when I acted, from time to time over those 20 years, for the department of immigration, I saw many instances where there had been a clear abuse of those appeal rights in futile legal cases which resulted in millions and millions of dollars of costs to the taxpayers of Australia. The important thing about the temporary protection visas is that the temporary protection visa procedures made people available to be deported if they were not granted a proper visa. So that is really the key.

But let me look at some of the other changes. The minister is very fond of telling us that there has been no change. So in answer to my questions in estimates, and in answer to written questions on notice, there are 26 initiatives or projects that have been changed in the department to give effect to the government’s change of its border protection regime. These include: considering arrangements to apply the onus on the department to justify detention to detain an unlawful citizen—so now the onus is on the department to justify why a person has to remain in detention; strengthening arrangements to allow for the release of unauthorised arrivals when their immigration detention is no longer required for the management of health, identity and security risks to the Australian community; introducing further access to legal advice; least restrictive detention environments; use of community based alternatives. And then the minister gets upset because people criticise his change of direction.

It is interesting to look at the letters to the editor in the Daily Telegraph on 7 May. The minister got all huffy because somebody had written in. There was also a story in the Daily Telegraph which was headed ‘Illegals will get a cuppa and visa’ on 4 May. The minister got all worked up about this, but the reality is that a very strong message has gone out there that is basically saying we have gone soft, we have changed our regime, we have changed our system of dealing with illegals. So it is virtually a situation now where we say: ‘Yes, okay, well you’ll spend a little bit more time in detention, but come on down. It’s a lot easier.’ And that is why we are seeing this surge; it is because of the pull factors. The minister talks about the push factors, but without pull, you do not have push. And now we have some very strong pull factors that mean that it is much, much easier for people to abuse our system and to come on down, and that is why we are seeing, daily, more arrivals. And I say to the people of Australia who are very concerned about this: mark my words, this change of direction means that we are going to have many, many more. They are waiting in their thousands, and they are waiting to come on down.