Mark Furner (Queensland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Today, we heard questions from those opposite directed to Senator Faulkner about concerns expressed about a coroner’s report that is due out tomorrow. I found that quite perplexing, given that surely we are patient enough to see what sort of findings the coroner might deliver about that unfortunate event. I am more concerned, however, about the debate that the opposition is prosecuting, which seems to be consistent with the view that they took in 2001. At that particular election the then government used this as an election platform to run on. It certainly disturbed me when the placards of John Howard demanding that we say who will come to this country and on what terms were distributed during that election. I had friends going into the polling booths on that particular day disturbed by the type of position that the then government had taken. To this day, I take offence that the opposition is trying to prosecute that type of belief and scaremongering out among the public, regardless of the facts.

The facts are that, as indicated today by Senator Evans, the highest number of boat arrivals on record were under the John Howard Liberal government in 2001. Reflecting on those numbers, 5,516 people arrived in 43 boats. During the months of August and September in 2001, we saw more than 2,200 people arrive in 10 boats. All of us were present in the other place last week—in fact, a week ago today—where we heard from the President of Indonesia. In his speech, he gave a commitment to work with Australia in combating people smuggling. That is a true indication of the corroborative arrangements that the Rudd Labor government has with one of our closest neighbours to assist in combating this problem.

The problem is the people smugglers, not the poor unfortunates who in these boats trying to make it to our shores. No-one can blame them for wanting to take the trip from countries like Afghanistan and Sri Lanka. We have taken a stance. The stance is that, although we take a firm stance on people smuggling, we are guided by what is expected of us as a nation under UNHCR rules. We will ensure that we conduct ourselves appropriately and use mechanisms that are suitable for humane acceptance and processing of these people.

I will go to some of the history of people-smuggling. In particular, I want to reflect back on what former Liberal immigration minister Philip Ruddock said in 1999:

It is timely to remember that the use of people smugglers to get around a country’s rules about who can come and who can stay is a worldwide problem. Australia is not alone. We are also seeing large numbers of people seeking asylum in developed countries—people from the same groups as we are seeing in Australia. For example, Iraqi asylum-seekers are registered in 77 countries and last year—

which would have been 1998

there were over 34 000 applications for asylum lodged by Iraqis in 19 European countries.

So even back then there were problems associated with asylum seekers wanting to gain access to other countries throughout the world. It is not a problem that is going to go away overnight. It is a problem on which we need to work together and find a solution. The government is on the path to reaching a solution as to how we deal with it. In fact, if we look at the 2009-10 budget—and I recall that just yesterday Senator Evans spoke about the forthcoming budget, but if we look at 2009-10—an additional $654 million was dedicated to upholding the government’s strategy to combat people-smuggling as part of the Rudd government’s $1.3 billion strategy to strengthen national security and border protection overall. This government is serious about combating this problem, and we will continue to combat the problem to resolve this issue. (Time expired)