George Brandis (Queensland, Liberal Party, Shadow Attorney-General) Share this | Hansard source

Senator Hanson-Young asserts that the government has adopted Mr Tony Abbott's policy in relation to asylum seekers. If only that were true, because, although the government has adopted one element of the coalition's policy—that is, the reintroduction of the Pacific solution and the reopening of Nauru—unfortunately, for reasons that are incomprehensible to me, the government has not adopted the other two critical elements of the coalition's successful policy—that is, temporary protection visas and turning boats around in the limited but occasional circumstances in which that can safely be done.

The Pacific solution was a suite of policies. Those were the three elements: offshore processing on Nauru and Manus Island, temporary protection visas and turning boats around where it was safe to do so. All three elements were necessary in order to deprive people smugglers of the capacity to say to vulnerable people, 'We can guarantee you a permanent settlement in Australia.' All three elements were necessary. So it is beyond my comprehension why the government, having protested for years that it would never embrace the Pacific solution, at last, and at the cost of many hundreds and perhaps more than a thousand lives, swallowed its pride and decided to do so and yet still resists adopting the other two elements of the suite of policies that worked. So while we are glad that the government, after so many years, after so much stubborn pride, after the loss of so many innocent lives, at last saw the wisdom of returning to offshore processing, it is still resisting adopting the other two elements of that successful suite of policies. So we can have no confidence at all that this incomplete, partial adoption of the coalition's successful policies will produce the outcome the government hopes it will produce. Having told us for years it would not produce a favourable outcome, the government now says, 'Well, we think it will produce a favourable outcome.' But we in the coalition say to the government, 'Unless you adopt all of the elements of the successful policy, there is no reason to be confident that the tide of refugee arrivals will dry up.'

I listened with care to what Senator Hanson-Young had to say and I am bound to say that many of the claims she made were simply false—in particular, the claim that the Howard government did not adopt a compassionate policy when it comes to refugees. Senator Hanson-Young, you are evidently unaware of the fact that under the Howard government the refugee intake under the humanitarian settlement programs run by the Australian government were increased to the highest level they have ever been—a level which remains today.