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

It did not work. We are the progressive party in this case. This once again shows how backward the opposition is. It is backward in its failed solution with Nauru. Are we going to let asylum seekers wait for unknown periods of time to eventually be resettled in Australia? No. We are going to treat them humanely. This still provides an incentive for people smugglers to puts the lives of genuine refugees at risk. By sending asylum seekers to Malaysia, it removes the incentive to get into a boat. It therefore breaks the people smugglers' business model completely and ensures the safety of many refugees who fall prey to human trafficking.

The Malaysian agreement will be cost effective in a way which the Nauru solution cannot. It is obvious the opposition leader has not thought through the Nauru solution. Does he know what will happen to the 400 schoolchildren who would have to be removed from the site if the Nauru solution is adopted? You saw the footage on TV where he was touring an existing school in Nauru. What you do with those 400 children to replace them with refugee housing?

Mr Abbott left the task of serious consideration to the shadow Treasurer, who has stated that the capital costs of the Nauru solution would be $10 million. The opposition claims the Nauru solution is more humane; however, the Pacific solution did not stop boats coming to Australia and it did not break the people-smuggling business model. Do not forget Tony Abbott's shallow slogan 'Stop the boats'. We heard about that in the last election. We know it was a shallow political slogan as a cheap example of political gain.

You need only to speak to our brave men and women of the ADF who serve on the Armidale class patrol boats of the Border Protection Command in Darwin to establish what would happen if you stopped the boats. In June-July last year I was fortunate enough to attend a parliamentary defence program along with two opposition members of parliament. They posed the question to our brave men and women on those Armidale class boats during that program about what would happen if we stopped the boats. Obviously the question was clear. It did not take a rocket scientist to work this out. The response was clear and concise and exactly what I thought it would be. The ADF personnel said, 'If you stop the boats, you will have sabotage—you will have people drilling holes in the hull; you will have people taking to the motors with sledgehammers or whatever mechanism possible to disable that boat and make it unseaworthy.' We all know what would happen in that situation. You would not only have refugees at risk but also have our brave men and women of the ADF at risk trying to rescue those people from a boat that is no longer seaworthy.

We will not forget the 'bat phone', or the 'boat phone' as Mr Tony Abbott called it—'Pick up the phone and ring us if you are in strife.' It brings images to my head that frighten me. I can imagine what it would do to the public to have some guy standing there on the other end of the boat phone in his budgie smugglers talking to some captain out in the middle of the Indian Ocean about some refugees. It would be terrifying to think what sort of response people would be giving in that situation. That is the nonsense that Tony Abbott is coming up with, having boat phones and stopping the boats. It is not a viable situation.

As you can see, Senator Fifield's matter of public importance is simply untrue. The Gillard government is working hard to ensure that effective humane policies are implemented to improve protection for those who genuinely seek asylum. Our Malaysian transfer agreement will see 4,000 genuine refugees settled into Australia over four years and those who are transferred to Malaysia will await the outcomes of their applications. The Malaysian government has guaranteed that those transfers will be taken care of.