Steve Fielding (Victoria, Family First Party) Share this | Hansard source

This is Australia and we will decide who comes into this country—not the people smugglers, as the Rudd government has been allowing and encouraging. Border protection is a fundamental concern to all Australians. Australians expect their government to keep their borders safe and stop illegal people or goods from coming into the country—and rightfully so. It is a basic requirement of any government to take care of our national security. There can be no compromise when it comes to our national security.

When it comes to border protection and stopping illegal immigrants from flooding our borders, this government is nothing short of a failure. Every day we read in the papers of another boatload of people caught trying to sneak into the country by jumping the queue, while people in refugee camps, who are waiting patiently, are forced to wait even longer because they have had their places taken by those who are coming by boat.

It is a huge issue for all Australians and something which is costing us hundreds of millions of dollars in taxpayers’ money. Facilities on Christmas Island are at breaking point, with too many people flooding our shores for us to be able to detain everyone there. Now we are being forced to bring these people to the mainland, where they are practically processed in our living room. This is concerning many, many people. It is proof that the government has lost control of its handling of this issue and does not have an idea of what to do with the mess that it has created.

So what is the Rudd government doing? The Rudd government is just throwing more money at the problem, in the hope that it will fix the flood of boats coming our way. The Rudd government is spending $202 million in this budget on accommodation for asylum seekers. First we had Hotel Christmas Island and now it is Hotel Queensland. What is next—the Hyatt or Club Med? The Rudd government does not have a clue on how to handle the wave of asylum seekers flooding onto our shores—and giving them luxury accommodation is clearly not the answer. There is no way we should be detaining asylum seekers in hotels, because it just gives the people smugglers an extra selling point for their marketing.

Clearly the Rudd government is all at sea with its asylum seeker policy. The Rudd government is encouraging people to put their lives at risk by jumping onto leaky boats and taking the dangerous voyage to Australia—all because we are seen as a soft touch. We need to send a clear message to the people smugglers that Australia will no longer allow them to profit by preying on desperate and vulnerable people. The Rudd government needs to stop throwing money at the problem and start implementing a policy that will fix the problem.

I have been to Christmas Island and have spoken firsthand to people who arrived illegally by boat. The belief out there is that, as long as you pay enough money, you can simply jump on a boat and come to Australia, where you only have to wait three months and then you are given a gold pass into Australia. Why would you bother to wait five to 10 years in a refugee camp, when you can simply pay to jump the queue? That is the kind of message this government has sent to people smugglers—and it is just wrong. We have seen boat after boat stream into our waters, and you would have to have your head in a bucket of sand to say we do not have a serious people-smuggling problem.

I voted for the Rudd government’s changes to the immigration laws back in 2008 because I was against the barbaric laws which were put in place by the Howard government. But I accept that these changes have led to unintended consequences. The Rudd government need to wake up and realise that people smuggling is a real problem that is only going to get worse, and they need to be prepared to take more serious action. That is why I have put forward the idea of sending boat people to the back of the queue in overseas refugee camps—to stop people smugglers from selling Australia as an attractive destination.

Under Family First’s proposal, queuejumpers would be sent to the back of the queue at various overseas refugee camps and not given a gold pass to come into Australia. We need to send a clear message that queue jumping will not be tolerated by Australia. Every time we accept into our country a refugee who has come by boat, another refugee waiting patiently in an overseas camp somewhere is forced to wait even longer. That is not fair. For every person who comes by boat as a refugee, we take one person from the front of the queue in an overseas refugee camp. Clearly, they are jumping the queue. There are thousands of refugees patiently waiting in line in camps across the world trying to gain asylum, but boat people just push their way further and push those who have been waiting in the queue further down the queue. There is no way I think we should be rewarding people for jumping the queue and penalising those who are waiting in line.

Under this idea, Australia would take in people who have waited patiently in line in overseas refugee camps instead of rewarding queuejumpers. As I said, we need to send a clear message that queue jumping will not be tolerated by Australia. Australia is a fair and compassionate country and we should do our fair share to help refugees, but we should not encourage queuejumpers under any circumstances. As I said, every time we accept a refugee into our country by boat, a refugee waiting patiently in a camp somewhere overseas is forced to wait even longer. How is this fair on these people? There are hundreds of thousands of refugees patiently waiting in line in camps across the world trying to gain asylum, but boat people just push them further down the queue. There is no way we should be rewarding people for jumping the queue and penalising those who are waiting in line.

Of course, the real villains here are not the asylum seekers but the notorious network of people smugglers who prey on the vulnerabilities of desperate people and put the lives of these desperate and vulnerable people at risk all for the sake of making money for themselves. People smuggling is a despicable crime, and we cannot afford to go soft on these people. We need strong laws in this country to deter people smugglers and send a message that this kind of illegal activity will not be tolerated. I have always maintained that we should throw the book at people who engage in people smuggling, because that is the only way we are going to get through to them that Australia will not put up with their criminal activities.

Family First support the measures contained in the Anti-People Smuggling and Other Measures Bill 2010because, when it comes to people smugglers. there can be no compromise and no leniency. This bill will expand the crime of people smuggling to include those people who provide material support or resources towards a people smuggling venture. It also contains provisions which harmonise the people-smuggling offences contained in the Criminal Code and the Migration Act, making it easier for us to prosecute people smugglers when they break our laws. People smugglers have no respect for our laws. They endanger the lives of vulnerable people and they threaten the border integrity of this country.

Family First welcomes these changes, but they are still not enough. They are simply scratching at the surface. Until the Rudd government gets serious, this problem is not going to go away. Until the Rudd government looks at Family First’s plan and takes action to discourage people from getting on the boat in the first place, this is going to remain a problem for our country and remain a concern for many, many Australians. Even the UN has revealed that people smuggling into Australia is out of control. Now it is time for the Rudd government to listen, so that we do not all end up paying for this later down the track.