Sarah Hanson-Young (SA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak to the Migration Amendment Bill 2013 and to make the Greens' position on this piece of legislation very clear. We do not support this piece of legislation, for a number of reasons.

Firstly, this legislation enacts changes that circumvent a number of rulings of the courts, thus thumbing our nose at the rule of law, and locking people—people who have already been found to be in genuine need of Australia's refugee protection—into indefinite detention, possibly for the rest of their lives. This bill also enacts changes to the Migration Act that go against recommendations that have come before this chamber a number of times over the last few years.

There was a report by the Joint Select Committee on Australia's Immigration Detention Network. Its recommendations, which were supported by both the Greens and the Labor Party, said that those refugees who had adverse ASIO assessments needed to have periodic reviews—needed to be able to access some form of fairness within the system. This bill does the exact opposite.

This bill says that any refugee—anyone who has arrived in Australia and been found to be in genuine need of protection, who has fled war or torture, whose family has had to scrabble together enough to get out of a scene of brutality, and who has arrived in Australia and been acknowledged, through all of the checks and balances, to be a refugee—on whom there is a little red flag from ASIO—keeping in mind that, when that happens, unlike Australian citizens, refugees are not able to access the reasons why that little flag from ASIO has popped up—is condemned under this piece of legislation to never being given a refugee protection visa, despite the fact, putting everything else aside, that they are entitled to that protection. Rather than finding a way of managing the needs of that particular group—and there are not many of them; there are currently only 50 refugees who have this adverse security assessment flag against them, not knowing what the claims are, never being able to have their case heard in a court, effectively being sentenced without trial—they are going to have to remain in immigration detention for the rest of their lives if they are to remain in Australia. That is effectively what this piece of legislation is doing.

It is inhumane. It is in stark contrast to international law, and it has been condemned by international organisations, including the United Nations, time and time and time again. It is an affront to basic fairness and justice under the law.

I just want to take some time in this chamber today to tell you about one of the people that this bill will affect. Her name is Ranjini. She is a young mother. She and her three children are currently in immigration detention at the Villawood detention centre in Sydney. She has been there for a number of years. Her youngest child was born in immigration detention; that child has never seen the reality of freedom in the outside world. Her oldest son is suffering severe developmental issues because of being kept in immigration detention indefinitely. This young mother and her three children do not know why it is that ASIO has a red flag against them. They have not been able to put forward their case. They have not been able to defend any of the accusations. None of this incarceration has been before a court, yet this young woman and her three children remain incarcerated indefinitely and, under this bill, this young woman may be there for the rest of her life.

Ranjini and her two young children arrived in Australia after fleeing torture and brutality in Sri Lanka. After being found to be a genuine refugee she thought that she would be able to start to rebuild her life and provide a fresh start, a secure start, for her and her young boys. She was living in the community, having been found to be in genuine need of protection. But, after a call from the immigration department asking her to come back to see her case officer—after already living in the community, safely, and starting to rebuild her life; her boyshad started going to the local school—she realised that she had received a negative ASIO assessment. She was ripped out of the Australian community. Her boys were taken out of school. They were flown from Melbourne and locked up as prisoners in the Villawood detention centre—that was three years ago—where they remain today.

At that time Ranjini had already met a new partner in Australia, had got married and had fallen pregnant with her third child. That third child, a baby boy, was born in immigration detention. He has never seen the outside world and the real meaning of freedom. Ranjini and her three children have been in detention for three years. She has been told that, despite having the assessment by ASIO reviewed, she will have to remain there. This chamber has had recommendation after recommendation, calling on the government of the day to come up with a better way of managing cases such as Rajini's.

If somebody is found to be in genuine need of protection and a young family is incarcerated, then surely there is a better system than keeping them locked up forever just because there has been a flag from ASIO. There was no degree of seriousness stated—and I think this is really important to understand—when the assessment was made. We do not know whether Ranjini is a high risk, a medium risk, a low risk, a somewhat risk or a maybe risk. The flag is one size fits all. No appropriate management of that response is carried by this government. It is a policy decision; it is not the law. There is nothing in law that says that Ranjini and her three children need to remain in immigration detention. If Ranjini were an Australian citizen, she would have had her case heard before a court, she would have been able to have somebody advocate and defend her, and she would have had a fair trial. This young mother and her three children have been sentenced to life without having any access to a trial, let alone a fair one.

Ranjini has no right of appeal. She is now, effectively, left in immigration detention to rot. Her children suffer every day and she has been given no information as to why she is deserving of such treatment. It is all under the lock and key of ASIO and the minister.

Not for one moment are the Greens arguing that we do not need these checks and balances. Of course we do. We need to know who people are, where they come from and what possible threats they may or may not bring with them. But you cannot just lock up somebody and throw away the key and not give them the chance to access a fair go under the law. But yet that is exactly what the current law does and what this piece of legislation enshrines even further.

As I said, this bill is about circumventing a number of decisions made by both the High Court and the Federal Court. It has been a regular practice in this place over the last couple of years—it was under the previous government and, sadly, it seems as though it will continue under this government—that whenever a court makes a decision that does not suit the government of the day, bang, before we know it legislation is drafted, it is on the table and we are changing laws to suit the government rather than those who take on board the warning signs of the highest courts in the land.

What makes Australia a great country is our adherence to the rule of law and the fact that we pride ourselves in having a fair go before the law—everyone taking responsibility, everyone understanding that consequences occur, but having a fair go before the law. But not if you happen to be an asylum seeker who comes from Sri Lanka, caught up in the horrors of the brutal civil war or a young Hazara boy who has had to flee the Taliban in Afghanistan! Australia prides itself on the rule of law but not for those who actually fall within the definition of 'a refugee'.

As I said, there are currently 50 refugees, including five children, who remain in immigration indefinitely. If this bill passes they will remain there for the rest of their lives, unless they can be deported to another country somewhere else, which of course will not happen because, if Australia thinks they are a good enough threat to keep locked up for ever and a day, then how on earth would it convince another country to take these people? It is an absolute affront to the basic rules of law and justice for some of the world's most vulnerable people.

In other countries, the balance between ensuring that there are proper assessments of people and how to work out what is the appropriate management of them is taken very seriously. Countries like Canada and our cousins over the ditch in New Zealand have a special clause in their law that understands the need to accept that refugees who have fled war, torture, persecution and brutality need the opportunity to be able to argue their case and appeal this type of incarceration, just like an Australian citizen does. Why is it that, if ASIO says Joe Bloggs who lives down the street from me is a risk, we accept that he can argue his case in a court of law? He does not have to be put in immigration detention. If ASIO thinks he is just as much risk as anybody else who has an adverse assessment, he can argue his case. Yet, if you are a young mother who has fled the brutality of civil war in Sri Lanka, you do not have the same right. It is an abuse of the vulnerabilities of these people, it is an abuse of human rights, it is an affront to basic justice and it is a breach of international law.

In August last year the UN Human Rights Committee found that Australia had committed 143 human rights violations by indefinitely detaining the group of 50 refugees, including children. We had violated 143 times, and yet here in this place we see the Labor Party and the coalition saying, 'We'll just ignore that. We'll just ignore what this means in the international context and what this means to the UN bodies that we have signed up to. We'll ignore the warning signs from the highest court in the land and we'll change the law to suit ourselves.' What makes this country great is that we have a fair go before the law and we treat people equally. It seems not, of course, if you happen to be a refugee.

We should be addressing these violations, we should be finding practical, responsible and secure ways to manage the needs of these people, but it seems that for the government of the day it is all too hard. It is easier to just condemn a young mother and her three children to incarceration for the rest of their lives. Who is going to care anyway? That is pretty much the attitude from the major parties on this front. We are damaging these children, knowingly and deliberately, for the rest of their lives. The young baby born in immigration detention has never seen the outside world has not broken any laws. Who is the young mother who fled the brutality in Sri Lanka—desperate to put her life back together and desperate to give her kids freedom and protection—really a threat to? What threat is her son—who goes to one of the schools near the Villawood detention centre—to the other seven-year-olds he sits in class with, whom he is desperate to build friendships with? I will tell you a story. This young boy, because of these harsh laws and this abhorrent attitude, was banned from participating in his school class photograph because the immigration department thought that it would be a threat if he was in the school class photos. He came back to the immigration detention centre at the end of the school day and asked his mum, 'Mum, why wasn't I allowed to have a school photo like my friends?' That is what we are doing to these children. That seven-year-old deserves a fair go. His mother deserves a fair go.

Yes, let's come up with ways of managing potential threats, whether people are born in Australia or not, but do just condemn somebody to indefinite incarceration because it is the easy way out. We all know what this is about. This is because it is easier to play the fear card in relation to asylum seekers and refugees than it is to stand up for what is right, to stand up for a fair go before the law. It is absolutely abhorrent that, despite everything that has happened in the last six months—in particular, the chest-pumping of this government and the brutality of the Abbott government's approach to refugees and asylum seekers—the Labor Party could even sit here and vote for legislation that condemns a mother and her children to a life of imprisonment, with no trial, no appeal and no-one to advocate for them.

It is only 50 people at the moment, but they deserve a fair go and the children deserve a childhood, and they are not being given that. If this bill passes, they never will have that. How would it make Mr Morrison, Mr Abbott or Mr Shorten feel if they were their children? Parents who flee the brutality of war to get their children out of there and to give them safety and protection deserve as much protection under the law as if their children had been born here. How arrogant of us as a nation to say, 'We believe in the rule of law and fairness, but only for those we choose.' It undermines the very values of a fair go: justice, the rule of law and protection for the most vulnerable.

The Greens condemn this bill and will not be supporting it.