Sarah Hanson-Young (SA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

All too often when we talk about and debate the issues surrounding Australia’s border protection policy, we find ourselves in this ridiculous mix of scaremongering campaigns run by particular members of the opposition. Despite the fact that we know there are a growing number of people around the world seeking refuge, the coalition continue to turn a blind eye to the terrifying circumstances that these people have fled and from which they are seeking our protection.

I find it absolutely disappointing that the coalition’s own rhetoric in the last day—even in the last half hour—has changed from demonising people smugglers to demonising those seeking refuge themselves. The senators’ comments this afternoon were more about those individual asylum seekers than about the people smugglers that they continue to say we need to tackle. I guess that gets to the heart of the problem: the coalition do not believe we should have refugees in Australia. They do not believe that we should have a compassionate approach. If they did, they would understand that those people seeking asylum are not illegal. Terms like ‘illegal’ are not only offensive but absolutely inaccurate. It is actually not illegal to arrive in Australia and seek asylum and refuge. I find it incredibly distressing and unfortunate that some people continue to use this to exploit desperate asylum seekers for their own political advantage. I think Senator Arbib said something quite important: perhaps it is because of your own irrelevancy that you turn to demonising those who are more desperate than you.

As a signatory to the 1951 Geneva convention on refugees and a country that considers itself a compassionate nation and a champion of the fair go, Australia must step up to our international obligations and our reputation and swiftly consider asylum seekers for refugee status. Australia has a role to play in the global community, as the movement of people will grow. We know from numerous reports that the global numbers of people seeking refuge have been rising for some time. According to the UNHCR, the recent increases in Australia are reflected in the global trends. Between 2001 and 2006, all countries experienced a large drop in asylum applications, and then from 2007 to 2008 there was a universal increase of around 11 per cent. In Australia, asylum applications increased by 19 per cent last year, from 3,980 to 4,750. Let me point out that fewer than four per cent of those people arrived here by boat. The majority of people seeking asylum in Australia arrived by plane, yet not once have we heard the coalition comment on those people. Not once do we hear them criticise border protection in our airports. It is an absolute double standard. And why? Because it is easy to whip up fear around poor people who arrive by leaky boat.

I do not know how many times the Greens have said this, but advocating harsher immigration policies, as some of those in the opposition continue to do, does not stop desperate people who are fleeing war and persecution. We know that the temporary protection visa scheme did not work in deterring people; in fact, we saw the numbers rise after the introduction of that scheme. We know that excising our territories does not work in deterring people, and we know that charging people for their own detention in immigration detention centres does not work in deterring people, despite the fact that even as late as this morning the opposition seemed split on whether we are going to go backwards to the dark old days where we charged people for detention regardless of whether they were found to be genuine refugees or not.

What I find most scary about the position currently being pushed by the opposition spokesperson for immigration and her supporters is that I thought Australia had moved on. The voters thought Australia had moved on. Had we not moved on from the days when we locked children in detention centres behind barbed wire in the middle of the desert? We knew that that was the case in the dark old days of the Howard regime, when Philip Ruddock was immigration minister and turned a blind eye to young children who had sewn their lips together in desperation for assistance. Yet those in the coalition who continue to feel irrelevant in their own positions have nothing better to do than prey on the fear and desperation of those more desperate than us.

I think we can all agree, on all sides of politics, that the people-smuggling trade is an appalling one that exploits innocent individuals who are in a desperate situation. Where I do think we differ, however, is on the role that Australia should play in managing the global rise in numbers of asylum seekers fleeing their homelands in search of a safe and peaceful environment. While there are reports that border security will receive a boost of up to $500 million in tonight’s budget to combat people smuggling, I hope that we also see an increase in our commitment to providing humanitarian visas and humanitarian aid.

Recent arrivals of people seeking asylum in Australia point to humanitarian problems right across the global community and increased refugee movement right around the world. Australia has an important part to play. Just as we want to be a player in helping to combat and deal with the global financial crisis, we have a role to play in helping to manage the movement of people globally and the numbers of people who will continue to seek refuge right around the world. We have a responsibility not just in our immediate region but in helping to manage those people right around the world.

Australia is one of the wealthiest nations in our region and we need to provide support to those in need without whipping up fear and unfounded scaremongering. Instead of spending millions of dollars on pushing people back, which we know is not a humane, appropriate or responsible way of managing the movement of people, we need to find better ways to create safer and more humane pathways for people to seek asylum.

I want to reiterate how disappointed I am that the coalition seem to be sliding back to the dark old days when we locked children in detention behind barbed wire in the middle of the desert and threw away the key, when we separated children from their parents because they happened to be at different stages of seeking asylum and having their visas processed, when we detained people unlawfully because they were not actually meant to be detained in the first place. The Department of Immigration and Citizenship has found hundreds of cases where we detained people unlawfully. Do we really want to go back to the dark old days when Australia’s reputation in the international world was frowned upon? I do not think we do and I do not think the Australian public want us to.

We should be proud of being a compassionate, humane country which does give people a fair go and does not demonise people because of where they come from or how they arrive. Whether somebody arrives by boat or by plane, they still have the right to seek asylum. We should not accept double standards and we should not accept any calls from the coalition to return to the days of locking people in detention and throwing away the key.