Doug Cameron (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Here we are again—Senator Cash in another strident performance. There is no substance. It is all about the rhetoric and the one-liners. I am always intrigued by the coalition and their love affair for the worst aspects of US politics. I suppose Senator Cash will be joining Senator Bernardi’s new Tea Party, his Australian Tea Party that is on about deregulation, no role for government in society and anti-immigration. That is the Tea Party and that is where Senator Cash and Senator Bernardi are coming from.

We have been lectured over the years about the supremacy and flexibility of the US industrial relations system. So what did the coalition give us? They gave us Work Choices. We have been lectured about the rugged individualism that dominates United States society, and that was used to attack collectivism and trade unionism in this country. We have been lectured about the supremacy of the market and the need to minimise or remove government from any role in society. We have been lectured about privatisation of health care, privatisation of education, privatisation of public infrastructure, and we are now been lectured on immigration.

But we have heard little of the historic immigration and refugee policies that assisted the US become a global powerhouse. You do not hear that. They want all the worst aspects of the US system but they do not want to pick up some of the great aspects of the US system. Immigration was welcomed and refugees were supported. Refugees were nurtured and refugees were accepted into the US society, the society that the coalition keep lecturing us about, but they never want to pick up the good aspects of the US society.

This historic set of values is epitomised in the inscription on the Statue of Liberty. I am not sure if any in the coalition actually know about the inscription on the Statue of Liberty. It is a sonnet written by Emma Lazarus in the early 1900s. It is well quoted and I want to quote it again. The poem on the Statute of Liberty reads:

“Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

The coalition have demonstrated that they do not care about fairness, equity and justice when it comes to refugees. The coalition’s record on asylum seekers and refugees is not based on our international obligations or the recognition that many asylum seekers fear for their lives. It is based on promoting fear and discrimination against the most vulnerable, against those who seek to come to this country for safe refuge. There is nothing of the principle that resulted in the United States providing refuge and support for those who fled their native country in fear of their lives.

The coalition do not care about the tired and the poor. The coalition do not care about providing freedom to asylum seekers. There would be no lamp beside the golden door for refugees if the coalition had their way. The coalition would simply fuel the prejudices and the fears of Australians against those who need our help and our support, and nothing could have epitomised that more than the contribution to this debate by Senator Cash, the previous speaker.

Labor has been the party that has taken steps to protect those who seek asylum in this country. In government we have introduced a number of changes to refugee policy including the closure of the disgraceful offshore processing centre in Nauru. It was a disgrace, it was an international shame and it brought nothing but loathing of this country by people who care about refugees. We ended the temporary protection visa system that left refugees in uncertainty and in desperation. We introduced a merit based appointment process for the Refugee Review Tribunal. We abolished the 45-day rule bar on asylum seekers’ access to work rights and basic health care.

We increased the total Refugee and Humanitarian Program from 13,000 places in 2007 to 13,750 currently. We replaced the Howard government’s community care pilot with an ongoing program to support asylum seekers living in the community. There were also some reforms to immigration detention including: the development of New Directions in Detention, an outline of principles for the conduct of immigration detention centres; the abolition of the policy of charging immigration detainees for the cost of their detention; and legislative changes to increase penalties for those convicted of people-smuggling and providing material aid.

Some myths are being perpetrated by the coalition in relation to refugees and asylum seekers. We hear a great deal about illegal boat arrivals, detention centres and border protection. It is all spin. There is no threat to Australia’s borders, no flood of illegals and no influx of boat arrivals. There is a trickle, not a flood. The numbers in Australia are very small. In 2009 there were 2,497 successful visa applications, mostly from families. In Europe there were 286,680 applications, 114 times as many. In North America there were 82,270 applications, 32 times as many. Ten years ago there were twice as many asylum seeker applications as there were last year. All up, there are 20,919 refugees in Australia, a tiny fraction of the worldwide total of 15.2 million and less than one-tenth of one per cent of the Australian population. These are the facts; these are not the scaremongering tactics adopted by the coalition.

They are victims of circumstances outside their control. Refugees who apply for asylum are people who have been forced to flee their homelands. Many faced persecution and imprisonment and some faced death. Most have lost everything they own. They have come here to start a new life because we live in a country which is safe and secure. It is hard for us to imagine what it must be like for many refugees. Sadly, nearly one refugee in two is a child.

Everyone who comes into this country undergoes rigorous Australian government security checks. Those opposite should understand that refugees are fleeing from security threats, not creating new ones. They are not illegals. Refugees have jumped no queues, they have broken no rules and they are not illegals. Since when was fleeing persecution a crime? It is not illegal to seek asylum without a visa.

Ninety per cent of boat arrivals are genuine refugees. That was what happened under the Howard government. The boat arrivals were allowed in. That is the reality because they were genuine refugees. When refugees are granted permanent residency they have exactly the same rights and obligations as the rest of us, like obeying Australian laws and paying Australian taxes.

We have a long and proud history in Australia of helping refugees. Since Federation we have accepted more than 740,000 refugees, many of them hard-working Australians who have made Australia the country it is today, like scientist Dr Karl Kruszelnicki and Westfield founder and FFA head Frank Lowy.

The argument is: why do they come here? Can’t they go somewhere else? That is the position being put from across the floor. The answer is: overwhelmingly, they do. By world standards, very few refugees come to Australia. Other countries get far more asylum applications than we do. Sweden, a country with half our population, gets four times as many asylum applications. North America gets 13 times as many, and Germany gets 28 times more refugees. But the argument from across the floor is that we are being swamped. We are not being swamped. There are 15.2 million refugees worldwide, and we have 20,919. That is a tiny fraction; an equivalent of one-tenth of one per cent of the Australian population.

The argument we hear from across the floor is that they are a security threat. No, they are not. Everyone who comes here is required to undergo a rigorous Australian government security check. These refugees are fleeing persecution. They are fleeing security threats, not creating new ones. Anyone who does pose a security threat is not admitted to this country. We hear the argument that they are breaking the rules. No, they are not. Refugees are not jumping queues. They have broken no rules. When you are running for your life, there is no such thing as an orderly queue. There are no rules. Think about it: would you risk your kids’ lives because you are supposed to wait for a piece of paper? It is not illegal to seek asylum without a visa.

The argument is that they are a drain on the economy. We heard a bit about that from Senator Cash earlier. When a refugee is granted residency, they have the same rights and obligations as everyone else. The Australian economy has been built on the back of immigration. Most people who come here as refugees seeking protection are so grateful that they end up giving back to this country much more than they ever take. We are told that we are splitting at the seams and we cannot take any more. It sometimes seems that way, but this has nothing to do with people who apply for asylum. Every year our population increases by around 300,000. Asylum seekers account for only 2,497. That is less than one per cent.

Then there is the argument that we do not get to decide who comes in and that our borders are now broken. We do decide who comes in: almost everyone who comes here does so by the usual migration channels. Everyone who applies for asylum is individually assessed by the Australian government. Remember: only people who can prove that they are fleeing persecution get a visa.

How fair dinkum are the coalition? We recently had the shameful spectacle of the coalition parading around the country during the August election campaign shouting, ‘Stop the boats,’ as if their bellicosity alone would somehow miraculously stop asylum seekers arriving in this country. According to the best estimates available, as recorded by the Parliamentary Library’s background note on this subject, somewhere between one and four per cent of asylum seekers arrive in Australia by boat. The other 96 to 99 per cent of asylum seekers arrive in somewhat more comfort, aboard Boeing and Airbus jet aircraft operated by the world’s leading airlines. They arrive at our airports with a valid visa, usually a tourist visa, and then apply for asylum at a later date, while living and often working in the community.

So why is it that the coalition cannot be found shouting, ‘Stop the 747s,’ ‘Stop the A380s,’ or ‘Close the airports’? The reason is the coalition are not actually fair dinkum on this issue. They have no interest in a workable policy that meets the test of fairness and humanitarian concern. They are only interested in dehumanising and scapegoating asylum seekers and refugees, and that has characterised the coalition and diminished them for the last decade. Who could forget the refusal of the then immigration minister, Mr Ruddock, to even acknowledge the humanity of a child seeking asylum, whom he referred to as ‘it’—not he, not she, but ‘it’. That epitomises the problems with the coalition and the lack of respect that the coalition have for refugees. (Time expired)