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

Perhaps, Senator Bilyk, the next time someone puts a script full of spin in front of you, you could check the facts before you come into this place and parrot it off. That is really what the government is all about. One only has to look at the comments yesterday and the headlines that were being screamed in the papers yesterday to see that. I want to refer to Greg Sheridan’s quote:

One reason governments don’t tell the truth is when they are trying to avoid a hard decision.

Paul Kelly said:

He—

Rudd—

seems to think almost any line can be spun and will be believed, even when it is nonsense.

I think it is time that this government stopped treating the Australian public like mugs, because that is precisely what they are doing. They are spinning this to the point where they actually think that the Australian public are going to believe them.

What have we seen this week? We have seen the government try to convince us that a deal is not really a deal, that special circumstances are not really a special deal. There is the old saying: if it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck then it is a duck. There is absolutely no doubt that this government has done a deal to bribe these people off the Oceanic Viking. We have had Minister Evans and his weasel words all week trying to squirm his way around it, but the reality is that it is a deal and there is nothing that the government can say to spin their way out of it.

Let us look at the comments made this morning on the AM program by the Indonesian foreign minister’s most senior official on the ground in Tanjung Pinang, Dr Sujatmiko. His view is that he hopes:

… Australia keep the promise to come to Australia.

What he tells us is that there is an expectation—these people on the Oceanic Viking have an expectation, and the Indonesian government has an expectation, that they are going to come to Australia. Indeed yesterday we had Senator Feeney letting the cat out of the bag by telling us, ‘We were patient and we reached an accommodation.’ I understand that perhaps he might have gone back on that by telling us today that there was no guarantee given. Of course in the end this government has tried very hard.

I want to go to the terms of the offer that was made to these people. Over many years I was a government lawyer and I did my fair share of immigration law. The annual report of the Department of Immigration and Citizenship, both last year’s and this year’s annual report, says that we have continued with the service standard of 75 per cent of applications being finalised within 52 weeks. So the standard is a processing time of 52 weeks. That is not the resettlement time. This is where this government is totally and utterly misleading the Australian public.

Let us go and look at the terms of this offer. It says, ‘The procedures will differ.’ Of course they are different for these people on the Oceanic Viking. It says:

… If the UNHCR has found you to be a refugee—Australian officials will assist you to be resettled within four to six weeks from the time you disembarked the vessel.

Senator Bilyk was going on about millions of people—well, those millions of people, Senator Bilyk, are going to wait years and years and years to be resettled. But the people on the Oceanic Viking have struck a special deal with Kevin Rudd. They have struck a deal where instead of waiting for years they are going to be resettled within four to six weeks. Go and check the facts before you come into this chamber.

Then of course, for those people who have already registered with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, it says:

… Australian officials will assist with your UNHCR processing. If you are found to be a refugee, you will be resettled within 12 weeks from the time you disembark this vessel.

So forget the years of waiting to be processed. Again people in similar circumstances around the world will wait years and years to be resettled—but not the people on the Oceanic Viking; they are going to be resettled within four to six weeks. Of course there is no deal! Some people have to wait years and years to be resettled, but not the people on the Oceanic Viking.

Then of course we have the third category. The letter of offer says:

If you have not yet registered with UNHCR—Australian officials will assist you with your UNHCR processing.

I have never heard of that in my many years of being involved in this area. So are Australian officials all of a sudden just going to drop everything and help these people with their UNHCR processing? It continues:

If you are found to be a refugee, you will be resettled within 12 weeks from the time you disembark the vessel.

I repeat that other people around the world have to wait years and years to be resettled. But not this group of people. This group of people have been bribed off the vessel and they are going to be resettled in Australia, it is likely. That is the expectation of the Indonesians: that these people are going to come straight on down to Australia. Forget the millions of other people who have been waiting in queues—forget them. But of course this is not a special deal! Waiting only four to six weeks versus years and years to be processed and resettled sounds like a special deal to me.

Of course we have this other farce of the Prime Minister talking about the Border Protection Committee of cabinet, which is supposed to have made this decision. In the budget papers it tells us that this committee consists primarily of members of cabinet. At estimates we were told that there were a whole range of officials that sit on this Border Protection Committee. Today in question time we spoke about those. They include: the National Security Adviser, the head of the Customs and Border Protection Service, the Secretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, the Secretary of the Attorney-General’s Department, the head of the Office of National Assessments, the Commissioner or Deputy Commissioner of the AFP and the Secretary of the Department of Immigration and Citizenship. That is what I was told in answer to direct questions in estimates on 28 May this year.

But of course all of a sudden we have the Prime Minister’s staff attending these meetings and we have the Prime Minister’s staff making decisions. I want to know, and the Australian public are entitled to know, which members of the Prime Minister’s staff have suddenly taken to attending this committee or other committees, as Senator Evans told us today. When was the decision made? Who made the decision? It is important that we do know that, and, of course, Minister Evans will not tell us, because if we do know who they are then they would be up for proper parliamentary scrutiny.