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

I believe the government has to take a lot of responsibility for where we are in this debate at the moment. The Prime Minister himself has allowed for the space and the oxygen to be given to those within the coalition who want to exploit this issue for their own political gain. The Prime Minister has to take as much responsibility for this as anybody else. He has shown a lack of leadership at a time when we need to see a new way forward and a new approach to managing the movement of people and the rise in the number of people around the world seeking refuge. The Prime Minister has failed to discuss the issue openly and to not beat it up for his own particular purpose, and he has allowed those within the opposition who like to beat up these issues to have the oxygen to continue to fan the flames of fear, hatred and ignorance. I think the Prime Minister has to take a lot of responsibility here. It started on day one when he started using the term ‘tough but humane’ and did not actually articulate what policies he would introduce that are actually humane or how he would manage the situation to ensure that people’s human rights are protected regardless of whether they are on a boat in international waters, Australian waters or Indonesian waters.

I want us to reflect quickly on why there is a refugee convention and why it is Australia is a signatory to the refugee convention. After World War II nations around the world reflected on what had happened in the past decade or two and decided that never again did they want to see people who were in desperation and crying out for help being sent back to persecution and torture. That is why nations around the world agreed that there must be a better way and that never again would they allow people to be returned to places of persecution and torture and to have their lives put at risk. We agreed that we needed some type of convention to help us manage this. That is why Australia signed up. We proudly signed up. We thought, ‘Yes, this is absolutely something we should be doing.’

Yet, over the last few weeks, the debate seems to have forgotten the reasons why we have rules and regulations. Of course we need to process people’s claims, but they have a right to claim asylum. We agreed to that. That is why we are a signatory to the refugee convention. Other nations in our region, however, are not. Indonesia is one such country; Malaysia is another. We should be working to encourage those countries to sign the refugee convention, particularly if we want to develop some type of regional partnership or solution. We need to ensure that those other countries, our regional partners and neighbours, are on the same page, that they all agree that seeking asylum is a right. When someone puts their hand up and says, ‘I would like refuge—please assess me,’ we go through the process. While they are being assessed, we obviously protect them and uphold their human rights. We should not be detaining children behind bars, as we are in places in Indonesia. These are the bare minimum of things, the ground rules, that Australia should be negotiating with Indonesia before we start saying we have some wonderful solution.

We know that the Prime Minister himself has wanted to make this into a crisis. We have seen that the opposition believe it is a crisis—‘One more boat; oh, my gosh, the world is ending.’ No, it is not. Boats are going to continue to come—