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

I rise today to contribute to this debate, but before I get into it I want to acknowledge that this is the third, the fourth or perhaps the fifth time in the last six months that we have had a similar debate here in the Senate. Yet here we are again, and nothing has quite changed. Nothing is any better for those people who are seeking asylum and refuge. In fact, the only change I can see is a failing lack of leadership both from the government, through the Prime Minister, and from the Leader of the Opposition and the opposition’s immigration spokespeople.

There is an outstanding lack of leadership on this issue from both the Labor Party and the coalition, to a point where we are now debating the ignorances of the issue—not fact but fiction, the myths that go with asylum seekers and refugees. These are myths that, when times are tough in this issue, people resort to because they are more simplistic to debate—issues of queue jumping and the idea that somehow punishing the victim will stop people smugglers—when of course we know that none of these things are actually true. Yet we continue in the face of crass debate to revert to simplistic arguments and name-calling simply to get through.

Those of you who were in the chamber at the time only three weeks ago may remember I moved a motion calling on the Senate to support the idea of having a proper debate but of doing it respectfully. I am disappointed that that motion did not get up. There was a pledge from Senator Fierravanti-Wells to ensure that any discussion and debate on this issue would be done respectfully and in line with the facts and not simply fiction. I think the display that we have seen today means that she has either forgotten or decided to overlook that pledge.