Eric Abetz (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the explanation.

The question that I asked was as follows:

What measures and/or procedures are in place to prevent contraband or weapons being brought into detention centres.

This is pretty straightforward, I would have thought. The second question is:

Since 1 January 2008, have any contraband or weapons been detected in detention centres …

I would have thought this would be another pretty simple question. It continues:

… if so, can the following in relation to each detention centre be provided: (a) what items were found; (b) where those items were found; (c) on what date they were found; and (d) what action was taken against the person or persons identified as being involved.

That was asked on 30 May 2011. Patient fellow that I am, I waited until 19 July to write to the minister, Mr Bowen, indicating that the answer was now 50 days outstanding, almost twice the Senate's 30-day rule. There was no answer to that letter. So I wrote again on 1 September 2011 advising the minister that these questions had now been outstanding for 90 days, three times the Senate's 30-day rule. I therefore advised the minister's office that I would be raising this in the Senate, and I did so on 19 September 2011 using the mechanism that I am using today. The then Minister representing the Minister for Immigration and Citizenship, Senator Carr, told us on 19 September, virtually word perfect, that which Senator Ludwig has just read out to the Senate all these months later.

In my response at that time, I indicated that the questions, with respect, are not that complex. If there are aspects of questions that are complex then by all means tell us which parts are complex and which parts might take longer to answer than others. But I would have thought that by now the Department of Immigration and Citizenship under this incompetent government would have had measures and/or procedures in place to prevent contraband or weapons being brought into detention centres. That is a complex question for this government. This is a question that the government now needs some nine months to come to grips with. Are we to believe that there are no protocols, measures or procedures in place to prevent contraband or weapons being brought into detention centres? But that was the issue I raised in my speech on 19 September last year.

Finally, 105 days after I first wrote to Mr Bowen, Mr Bowen finally responded, apologising for the delay but saying that these were complex issues. We received that letter on 2 November, and it would appear that our letters crossed, because I wrote to Mr Bowen again on 2 November asking him to respond and noting that these questions had been on the Senate Notice Paper for 156 days. Today they have been on the Senate Notice Paper for 204 days.

So what we have, on top of the government's failed border protection policies, is failed administration by the minister. That is why this government is in the hopeless position it is in. It has hopeless policies combined with hopeless administr­ation. What is the excuse that it takes a minister 105 days to respond to a letter and say, 'We are not going to answer your question'? Here we are now, 204 days later, on an issue that is clearly of national significance. The border protection policy of this country is clearly a national interest policy. It is a policy that most people who are serious about national politics have a view on. As a result of the government's failed border protection policy, we now have all these detention centres scattered from Christmas Island, in the most north-westerly corner of Australia, right through to my home state of Tasmania, in the most south-easterly corner of Australia. They are scattered all around the countryside, bursting at the seams with excessive numbers of detainees. So, if ever you wanted a proof of the failed border protection policies of this government, just look at the numbers in the detention centres.

Given that we have had riots, given that we have had assaults such as Senator Cash was referring to and given that we have had detention centres burning down, it does make good sense to ask what measures are there to stop contraband and weapons being brought into detention centres, and we cannot be told. It is too complex a problem for Mr Bowen. Well, if that is too complex a problem for Minister Bowen, he should not be a minister and, quite frankly, he should not even be in the parliament if it is such a complex issue for him. Indeed, one would wonder how he could hold down a job. Surely there are protocols and measures in place to try to at least limit contraband and weapons coming into our detention centres. But what the Australian people have been told by this non-answer—now for 204 days—is that the government not only has no idea on border protection but has no idea on the significant issue of how to deal with detainees in the detention centre. Given the sort of environment in which the detention centres operate, I would have thought the No. 1 priority would be ensuring that weapons and contraband do not get into those detention centres. But it would seem they have no policy. They have no guidelines, they have no protocols on how to deal with it. Why is that and why is it that the government is so anxious to ensure that we are not told about the assaults, about the injuries? Because it will embarrass the government even further; that is the reason. We would see failed border protection policy, failed detention centre policy combined with maladministra­tion by this minister and by this government.

I would have thought that a genuine response, rather than the arrogant treatment that the Senate is being subjected to, would have been to say: 'There are a number of issues:'—if we are to believe what the minister tells us at face value—'these are the aspects that are complex, these are the aspects that are not and here is a preliminary answer to those matters that we can provide an answer to.' But to deliberately obfuscate and deny for 204 days shows the arrogance and the contempt with which this government treats the opposition.

It is noteworthy there is not a single Australian Green in the Senate. It is noteworthy that for the Australian Greens this sort of contempt for the parliament—and, might I say, for the Independents in the other place—does not make them concerned, albeit they signed up with Ms Gillard to a policy of transparency, accountability and we were told sunlight was good, if you remember that wonderful line. 'Sunlight is a good disinfectant; we should open everything up and allow the people to see.' Two hundred and four days of nonresponse is keeping the drapes closed; it is not allowing the sun to shine in in any way, shape or form.

Sure, the government is embarrassed by its border protection policies, as it ought to be. Sure, the government is embarrassed by its detention centre failures, as it ought to be. It now seems that the government is also embarrassed by its administrative failures through its minister, Minister Bowen, as it ought to be as well. But you do not overcome that embarrassment, you do not overcome those failures by simply stonewalling. You do not overcome these problems by simply not providing an answer. You actually have to man-up and provide an answer and treat the parliament with the courtesy it deserves; 204 days for outstanding answers is completely and utterly unacceptable. We look forward, as a matter of urgency, to getting the answers, I say to Minister Ludwig. I know he is not personally responsible, but when you have made contact with the minister's office courteously, not once or twice but now five times over a period of nine months, that is administrative failure writ large.

The sad thing is, Minister Bowen is now being talked about as a potential running mate to become the Deputy Prime Minister of Mr Rudd.