Lisa Singh (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary to the Shadow Attorney General) 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 in the detention facility on that island. I reiterate my Labor colleague Senator Carr's remarks on the question of who is in control of immigration policy in this government and in this country, because there is a serious question over the minister's competence. There is a serious question about the grip that he has on his portfolio and the way he has handled the Manus Island detention facility incident. Those questions loom large. There are still no answers from the minister. All we had were emphatic statements when the tragic event first happened—and then later they turned out, as we know, to be totally wrong. The minister tried to hide by correcting the record in the dead of night. This is not the behaviour of somebody who should be managing an incredibly important facility that I am sure the government would call the cornerstone of their border protection policy. There remain questions looming large as to the minister's competence in the way he is handling this facility and his entire portfolio.

The minister initially said that these matters happened outside the perimeter of the facility and that if asylum seekers were going to breach the perimeter then that was going to be a matter for them. But at the same time as he said that, he gave a guarantee of safety that, if they stayed inside the boundaries of that facility, he could guarantee their safety. Clearly he could not. We are still waiting, though, for that truth to be told.

This circus of secrecy around this government's border protection policy must stop. It has been going on since this government came to power—secrecy not only in this policy but across the board in a number of portfolio areas. When it comes to this circus of secrecy, though, it is probably in this area that it has been the most profound. People in this country have a right to know what is going on and the minister should be out there telling them exactly that. Instead, the grip that he has on his portfolio is very weak and, while this secrecy continues, becoming weaker by the day. The public want to know what is happening and how people are being treated in Australia's name. They have every right to know that. He is a minister of the Crown, he is the minister for immigration, and it is under his watch that this has occurred. It is under his watch that someone's life has been taken and that a number of asylum seekers have been injured.

The government cannot keep hiding from the public because, as we already know, information is coming out, regardless of the minister ducking and weaving and not letting the public know anything. We heard this morning, through the ABC's AM program, about a G4S staff member who has spoken out about the situation. Chris Uhlmann reported on that program that not only are asylum seekers incredibly traumatised by what has occurred but G4S staff themselves are also incredibly traumatised. He said:

Some have left the island suffering from serious post-traumatic stress and one … has spoken to the ABC … and says the situation is now so tense that the asylum seekers are refusing to have anything to do with local staff.

In fact, the G4S guard said that asylum seekers now feel so unsafe that, when they tried to bring local cleaners in the day after the incidents, it just about started another riot. The asylum seekers now want nothing to do with any of the locals. That is how tense the current environment is and remains on Manus Island. We have had three very serious incidents since Minister Morrison became minister, since the Abbott government came to power. The most recent, though, is this one which resulted in a young man tragically losing his life. What we have is a minister who simply has no idea what is going on, or at least is not willing to tell the public about it.

The question remains: where does the minister's guarantee of safety now stand? How can he enforce the statement that he made about a guarantee of safety? I may stand here and wish that Manus Island and the detention facility did not exist, that the death of Reza Berati did not happen and that the injuries and the trauma caused to asylum seekers and staff did not occur. But it does exist and these events did happen. The detention facility on Manus Island exists today—and I am sure it will tomorrow as well—but we need to ensure that people who are within our jurisdiction are provided with the highest level of safety. Yes, they may be on Manus Island, but they are still within our jurisdiction. That is something that must happen under this government's watch—under this parliament's watch. That is what is definitely owed after the tragic events that have occurred in the last week.

Yes, Labor does welcome the announcement of an independent inquiry. That will go some way towards getting to the bottom of what has occurred and we do look forward to an interim report as soon as possible—I think this month. The Australian public also needs to see that inquiry so that everyone can understand where the government is going wrong in its management of this facility and what steps are being taken to fix this mismanagement. Why? Because this is about human dignity. This is about taking ownership of what has occurred.

This is happening under Minister Morrison's watch. He is the minister. He needs to take ownership of what has occurred. He needs to ensure that such a riot—such an event—does not occur again. He needs to quell the fear, the trauma and the disquiet that now remains in the Manus Island detention centre. He needs to provide the public with some reassurance that this simply is not going to happen again. He also needs to deal with the atmosphere, which we have heard from the ABC's AM program is now so tense that it will not take anything much to potentially kick off another round of unrest. Surely the minister does not want that on his watch. Surely he is doing all that he can to ensure that such an event does not occur again.

The other concern I have is whether there were unaccompanied minors on Manus Island during this riot. I did ask a question during Senate estimates regarding unaccompanied minors. As the minister has said himself, it is not an appropriate place for children. I was given an answer by the secretary of the department, Mr Bowles, that there were no unaccompanied minors on Manus Island. But we know, from the Amnesty International report that came out in December, that there had been reports of at least two or three unaccompanied minors on Manus Island. It is certainly my hope that there were not any there during this riot. Having said that, for anyone there it was certainly a terrible tragedy that they should never have had to endure. I hope it never happens again.