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

I rise to speak on this matter of public importance and contribute to the debate on this important issue. It is an area that the Labor federal government focuses on. The government is sincerely concerned about these issues. With respect to the number of boats that are entering our waters the government is sincerely interested in and concerned for the health and wellbeing of those refugees in the centres that house them whilst they are here. To listen to some of the rhetoric I have heard since this debate commenced, you would think that we have lost control and that there is an invasion happening. The previous speaker spoke of an armada of boats. I have seen some of these boats coming to our shores and there is nothing like an armada of boats coming down to enter our nation—far from it. I suggest these scurrilous and false accusations being put forward by those opposite are just another example of the scare campaigns they run when there is no logical example or policy put forward to deal with the particular issue. We have heard more examples of those scare campaigns over the past few days in dealing with other issues like the carbon price. So, once again, it is just the latest in a long line of concentrated efforts by the opposition to distort the facts, manipulate tragedy and create fear in the electorate at the expense of the Australian people. If the opposition’s scaremongering is to be believed, it would seem that an invasion is imminent as, apparently, a ‘complete and absolute loss of control’ has rendered our national borders non-existent.

It is this accusation of loss of border control that I wish to address first. Last year I was very fortunate to participate in the Australian Defence Force Parliamentary Program, which involves the Border Protection Command in Northern Australia, and I know that some of the members opposite me have gone down the same path and been involved in parliamentary defence programs. It is basically a tripartite arrangement between the three forces: the Royal Australian Air Force, the Navy and the Army. They are given the task to protect our borders. I must say that our Defence Force is highly professional with committed and competent personnel who do their job extremely well protecting our borders. The ADF assets protect this vast northern area of Australia’s maritime domain from security threats including irregular maritime arrivals; maritime terrorism; piracy, robbery and violence at sea; compromises to biosecurity; illegal activity in protected areas; illegal exploitation of natural resources, such as illegal fishing; marine pollution; and prohibited imports and exports. That gives you an idea of the range of activities they perform. It is not solely just focusing on boat arrivals of refugees trying to come to this wonderful nation of ours from places where they are oppressed. It is a case of dealing with all these other activities that Border Protection Command do, and they do them well.

There are 400 ADF personnel in the area. I was fortunate enough to be on the HMAS Bathurst at the time, in June of last year. You may remember that around June we were leading up to the possible announcement of a federal election. A couple of my colleagues from the House of Representatives were on board HMAS Armidale and HMAS Bathurst and they enjoyed the same opportunity as me to see our personnel perform their duties.

These 400 ADF personnel work on the sea, in the air and on land to protect Australian borders. Customs are also involved in helping and cooperating with the agencies to protect our borders. On the second day we also went up in an AP-3C Orion maritime patrol aircraft which went over the reefs. During that particular surveillance exercise we saw an illegal fishing boat—not a boat of refugees. The fishing boat was identified and processes were followed. The boat was photographed and the material was sent down to the areas of control and surveillance. There is no doubt that that boat would have been approached by the local Armidale boats in the area and dealt with.

Our Defence Force are doing an excellent job up north. We have seven Navy Armidale-class patrol boats in that area as well. To appreciate the job they have to do you really need to recognise the area of coverage. It is not just a case of roaming around the north of Queensland, Northern Territory or Western Australia; they have 10 per cent of the world’s surface to cover. That is the area of coverage that our ADF have to manage—it is a huge area.

One of my colleagues from the House of Representatives, the member for Dickson, asked one of the personnel on the boat what would happen if we turned the boats back. The logical answer from those Navy personnel was that the people would destroy their boats. They would damage their motors or put holes in the hull—whatever it took to be rescued. This is the issue we need to deal with when the opposition leader, Mr Abbott, makes statements about just turning the boats back. Logically, you cannot turn the boats back because of the desperate situation of the people on them. They do not want to turn back. They want to be dealt with, they want to be managed and that is how we handle this situation.

During the Howard government era, 240 boats arrived carrying more than 13,600 asylum seekers. It is vexatious for those opposite to claim that they dealt with the migration and asylum seeker situation. The truth is that they did not deal with that situation. In fact, boats stopped coming as a result of global circumstances. As we know, the Taliban regime fell at the end of 2001 and millions of Afghans were able to return home. Yet the opposition decided to go ahead and build the centre on Christmas Island at a cost of $400 million. Naturally, they planned ahead because they realised this was an issue so they built that detention centre 2003.

To return to the issue of turning the boats back, I understand only seven boats were turned back under the Howard government. So the view that turning the boats around is a silver bullet is just a fallacy. After 2003 there were no boats turned around—none whatsoever. The reintroduction of the temporary protection visa is also a con. Do not think that that is a matter that will be resolved and used to stop the boats. Only three per cent of the 11,000 people who were granted one under the Howard temporary protection visa program ever left Australia.

We then had the magic bat phone—or in this case it was Mr Abbott’s boat phone. He was going to somehow pick up a phone and say, ‘We’ll assess this boat that is coming to our shores and we will make a decision about it.’ Once again, having been on an Armidale-class boat, the HMAS Bathurst, I understand that is not possible. It is about time the opposition came up with some responsible policies to deal with this particular issue. (Time expired)