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

Thank you. I appreciate that, Mr Deputy President. When the SIEVX sank, 353 people died. Why? Because the Howard government had stopped a program of allowing family reunion. Women and children were on that boat because they had no other way of joining the rest of their family in Australia. That was a policy decision designed to stop families being together and people had no hope except to be on that boat. To this day, we do not know whether they were allowed to drown. That is a question I have asked for very many years. I am making this very clear.