Christine Milne (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I support the contention in this matter of public importance that the Abbott government failed to adequately respond to the tragic incident on Manus Island that led to the death of Reza Barati and the serious injury of many other asylum seekers. It is about time that the hypocrisy we have heard in this place is brought to the fore. What we need is a royal commission into what has occurred. We need an inquiry that has judicial powers and can bring in the documents and the evidence and give witnesses the protection they need. But there is not the will in this place to have the truth told in its entirety. That is because the Labor Party in government re-opened Manus Island and made all kinds of claims in this place. Go back to the debate, which I was reading through. I wonder how Senator Lundy feels now when you look at the claims she made defending the Gillard government at the time, saying that all of the conditions would be met and it would meet our human rights obligations. She listed all the things that would occur and she gave endless undertakings—all wrong.

Then we had the next Prime Minister, Mr Rudd, engaged in a memorandum of understanding, and now we have disgraceful behaviour from the current minister and the government, and the cruelty goes on to the point where Reza Barati is dead. I have used the word 'murder' in his case, because what else do you call a situation when a person is in the direct care of the government of Australia and they are dead inside the compound and there are reports of people stomping on people's heads. That is not an accident. What do you call it if there is intent?

Now I get to the reports that Senator Carr mentioned this morning on the question of whether G4S staff are to blame for the Manus Island violence—the reports that the G4S guards allegedly opened the doors of the camp to a local dog squad and PNG police and so on and so forth. They are the reports, but I want to go to a more fundamental question, because I am sick of hearing this in this place. We are supposedly breaking people and destroying their mental health. We end up with Reza Barati dead, 70 people in hospital, bashings and cruelty. Why? Because we are stopping people from drowning. That is why. That is rubbish. This is not about stopping people drowning, and it is about time that truth was told to power. That is outrageous.

I want to go to that point right now. What has this government or the last government done to help people not get on boats? Number one: have they put more money into the UNHCR in Indonesia to assist? No, they have cut the funding. What about the humanitarian intake? Under the last government there was a promise to increase it, and what has this government done? They have decreased the humanitarian intake from 20,000 to 13,750. They have decreased the humanitarian intake and decreased the money in Indonesia. There is all the talk about people worrying about people drowning. That is not the case. You have never supported upholding the Safety of Life at Sea convention. When we questioned—

Senator Seselja interjecting—