Ian Macdonald (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

It is always easy to follow Senator Hanson-Young in any debate because each debate relating to migration she uses the same emotive words, no matter what lies they are, no matter how untruthful, how contrary to the facts. We have just had another example of that. Don't worry about what is actually in the bill; just use your normal, emotive language that you use on everyone, as I say, no matter how inaccurate and what complete mistruths those statements are. Let me take up some of the things Senator Hanson-Young said. She said, for example: 'We are going to delete the refugee convention from the Australian books.'

Senator Cash interjecting—

It is not just wrong, Minister—it is absolutely ludicrous that that would be suggested. But it is the typical thing. I have been around for a while and I have been able to work out the Greens. They never bother about the facts, never bother about the legislation; they just come out with whatever lie they can think of and try and fool the public—and it works with the eight per cent or so of Australians who do vote for the Greens.

I experienced Senator Ludlam talking about the telephone interception bill and quite unashamedly saying, 'If this metadata legislation goes through the government, Big Brother will be able to know exactly what you are looking at on your computer.' I was not involved in the debate, but I thought, 'Hang on, I have just been through a Senate inquiry into this, and that is simply wrong!' So I got up and I said to the chamber, 'That is wrong, Senator Ludlam!', and he sat there in the corner with a big smile on his face and nodded. That is the way the Greens behave—do not bother about the truth, do not bother about what the legislation says; just tell any old lie and hope that some people will believe you. As I say, eight per cent of the people clearly do believe the Greens.

I have written down some of Senator Hanson-Young's words, but I should not have to write them down, because you hear them all the time—'unforgivable', 'drunk with power', 'unfettered discretion', 'play God', 'refugees sent back to danger'—it goes on. If you listened to Senator Hanson-Young just then, check what she said back against any speech she has ever made on migration and you will get the same sorts of words. Can I again put out another deliberate mistruth by the previous speaker? She said there are, outrageously, 559 children still in detention—384 in Australia and 167 on Manus Island. Actually, she knows as well as I do that there are 167 on Christmas Island. But let me give you the full facts about children in detention, to put this all in perspective. When John Howard left the government as Prime Minister there were zero, zilch, none—no children in immigration detention. Under six years of Labor government supported by Senator Hanson-Young, Senator Wright and their party, we had thousands of children in detention and thousands of children who lost their lives at sea. We never heard any condemnation from Senator Hanson-Young over the loss of lives of children at sea. Not once did we hear that. Why? Because it was under the watch of the Labor Party, who the Greens kept in power—in fact they were part of that power.

When John Howard left government zero children were in immigration detention. When Tony Abbott became Prime Minister there were 1,743 children in detention centres. Did we hear from Senator Hanson-Young about that? No. Did we hear from the Human Rights Commission about that? No. But that was a year ago—1,743 children in immigration detention. Since the Abbott government has been in power, and thanks to the good work of Senator Cash and Mr Morrison, the relevant ministers, that number is now down to 647. You do not have to take my word for this—have a look at the evidence given at the estimates hearing held last Thursday in this building, a hearing that Senator Hanson was at. She knows these figures: 1,743 when the Abbott government took over, when Mr Morrison and Senator Cash started dealing with Labor's problem. Now there are only 647 in immigration detention. At estimates last week—and Senator Hanson-Young was there, so she knows this—I said to the officials: 'What is the forward projection? What do you think is going to happen to these 647?' And I was told—and it is on the record in Hansard; you can go and look at it yourself—that by June next year there would be no children in immigration detention. No children. I said to them, 'What does "no" mean?', and they said, 'We will be trying to get to nil, but we can almost guarantee less than 100.' That was on the proviso that this legislation gets through the parliament so the officials can have the necessary authority to do what needs to be done to get those children out of immigration detention.'

If you had heard Senator Hanson-Young, would you believe that that was the case? Of course you would not, because they will tell any lie, misstate any fact, to convince a few vulnerable voters that the Greens have a heart. The Greens do not have a heart. If they had a heart they would not have been part of thousands of people losing their lives at sea under the watch of the Greens political party and Labor, and there would not have been 1,743 children in detention at the end of their time in government. These are facts. They are not emotive words; they are not any old lie to try and gather a little bit of political support from the few who would believe that sort of rubbish. You see, this is not just Senator Hanson-Young—any member of the Greens political party is the same. They will just say anything, anything at all, to get a vote. I mentioned Senator Ludlam's comment—which he acknowledged! He knew it was a lie. But did that stop him from saying it?

These are the lies that the Greens propagate, and they expect people to believe them. Senator Hanson-Young says these children are 'behind barbed wire' in prison camp. Again, go and see what the officials said about that very subject last Thursday at estimates. They said there is no barbed wire around—the only chain wire fences are around the swimming pools that are put there for the children. Yet if anyone would believe Senator Hanson-Young, and I suspect that as every day goes past there are fewer and fewer people who do believe her, all 647 children in detention are behind barbed wire. How emotive!