Alex Gallacher (SA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I listened with great interest to those on the other side lecture us about how we should do business, but it is pretty simple. We are committed to offshore processing. We want to destroy the people-smuggling business. We share your empathy; we do not want people drowning at sea.

Senator Cormann interjecting—

You just need to listen for a second and learn something. Australia has the greatest humanitarian effort in the world. We do well with refugees. This is a broken system that needs fixing; we simply need to restore offshore processing. The High Court decision is a setback. You need to set aside your political motives and use some guts, some determination, and share our commitment to fix this. Australians are probably sick of the political arguments about this. They simply want it fixed. Your comments about Nauru do not hold water. Nauru is unsound policy. I think the people smugglers are well informed: send people to Australia, they go to Nauru, which is an exp­ensive stopover for us, and eventually they get resettled in New Zealand or Australia. The people smugglers sell that message—if you get to Nauru there is a 95 per cent chance of being resettled.

We want to have an orderly migration process. We want our humanitarian effort to be successful. We do not want an ineffective opposition policy costing another billion dollars and we certainly do not want your thoughts and political aspirations to obscure the fact that we need to solve this issue. You have been asked to come to the plate, to step up and have a go at solving this problem.

The agreement with Malaysia has the support of the UNHCR who believe this is an opportunity for better protection of refugees in the region. The UNHCR wants certain protections in place for transferees and so do we, but this will be a policy that is consistent with our international treaty obligations on human rights. The Labor government feels that it is doing the right thing in destroying the people-smuggling trade. This Labor policy is about putting in place a regional framework to destroy the people-smuggling trade. Step up to the plate and join us on that. The reality is that four per cent, as has been stated here today, of those who take that perilous step to pay for a passage to Australia do not make it. Mem­bers on the other side really have to join us on this and put a stop to that. You need to support our policy, get in there, put your numbers up, put your heart and political will with the Labor Party and solve this once and for all for Australians. You simply cannot keep being obstructive and throwing stones in respect of all of this. And you lecture us! What about Tampa and children overboard? There has been 10 years of debate on this subject. We need to fix it and you need to come to the party so we can get this issue resolved. As the weeks go by—

Senator Cash interjecting—

Senator Cormann interjecting—