Glenn Lazarus (Queensland, Palmer United Party) Share this | Hansard source

Australia's reputation across the world is being damaged. We are being viewed by the world as a country that locks up innocent and defensive children, subjecting them to jail-like conditions without hope, compassion or any sense of a future. The sad truth is that we are a country that locks up defenceless children who have been washed up in our waters, children who have been dragged onto boats as innocent victims by their parents or others at the hands of unscrupulous people smugglers.

Australia is locking up traumatised children who have lost their parents and have been forced to travel by sea in treacherous conditions on unsafe boats. In Australia we are currently keeping some 30,000 asylum seekers in detention on the mainland and on Christmas Island, 468 of whom are children. Of those children, 32 are unaccompanied children. Let us be very clear, Australia is currently keeping 32 children without parents in a detention centre on Christmas Island.

Over the last 12 months, processing of asylum seekers has come to a grinding halt. Human beings have been left to languish in detention in jail like conditions at the hands of the Australian government. Detention means that these people are either living in detention centres or living in Australia on bridging visas, unable to work and living in appalling conditions. I cannot be a part of this. Palmer United cannot be a part of this. Australia cannot continue to be part of this.

As a representative of the people of Queensland and more broadly Australia, as a father and as an Australian with a genuine desire to ensure Australia flourishes as a nation, I have to do something. I cannot look forward to Christmas while young children are in detention on Christmas Island suffering, lonely and without hope. We have to process the asylum seekers—the men, women and children—who are being kept in detention, as they desperately need to know what their future holds. We have got to get the 460 children out of detention and we have to start doing the right thing.

Palmer United has spoken to the government and put forward a solution. Our solution is not one of political pointscoring. It is one that ensures that Australia as a country meets our humanitarian obligations and treats people with respect, decency and offers authentic refugees real and genuine hope. I recognise that it is a difficult pill for the government to swallow to take on board Palmer United's proposal to redress the current asylum seeker crisis. I am grateful that the government has agreed to Palmer United's ideas to ease the asylum seeker crisis and, as a result, agreed to implement our solution through key amendments to this bill, which will significantly improve outcomes for asylum seekers and put Australia back on the right path. As a result, in response to Palmer United's demands, the government will put in place a fast-track processing system to process the existing group of asylum seekers awaiting decisions in relation to their future. Further, the government has agreed to ensure that the 1,500 asylum seekers who arrived in Australia illegally by boat between 19 July and 31 December 2013 will not be transferred to Nauru for processing but, instead, will be included in the group of asylum seekers to be processed through the fast-track system. This will ensure that the 460 children in detention on Christmas Island, including the 32 unaccompanied children, will be removed from Christmas Island by Christmas this year. In addition, the government has agreed to increase Australia's refugee and humanitarian intake by 7,500 over the next budget and forward estimates periods.

Importantly, the government has also agreed to introduce the concept of a Palmer United safe haven enterprise visa, commonly referred to now as a SHEV. As Australians, we all recognise the important socially, economically and culturally significant benefits that immigrants have brought to our country. As a young boy growing up in Queanbeyan, I grew up and went to school and my local primary and high school with kids from local Italian, Croatian and Greek families. These family settled in Australia showing incredible tenacity and entrepreneurial spirit by establishing small local businesses, building a life for themselves, providing immense benefit for their local communities and contributing to the overall cultural fabric of our great nation. These families worked hard and were tireless in their commitment to their communities and their family businesses. They worked long hours every day building their businesses. Some of them were builders, restaurateurs, painters and corner-store owners. Without the arrival of people from other countries we would not be the wonderful multicultural and diverse nation that we are today, excelling in so many fields and industries. This is why the Palmer United Party developed the concept of the SHEV, because we value the benefits that people from other countries bring to our nation. We would like to give genuine refugees the opportunity to build a life for themselves here in our great country while also contributing to the continuing growth of Australia. Australia should open its arms to the genuine refugees and give them the opportunity to be part of our nation through real and genuine integration that builds on the strength of our great country while also supporting them to build a life of their very own, entwined with our laws, values, culture and social norms.

I am pleased the government has agreed to the Palmer United's SHEV idea, which involves asylum seekers who have been deemed genuine refugees being offered the opportunity to apply for a safe haven enterprise visa. The Palmer United safe haven enterprise visa, which is a five-year visa, will provide the opportunity for genuine refugees and their families to be placed in rural and regional areas across Australia, where they will either work or study for a minimum of 3½ years of that five-year visa. Rural and regional Australia is on its knees. Famers need employees to undertake farm based duties, such as picking, sorting and packing, along with various other business and administration duties. Tourist operators in my home state of Queensland desperately need staff and are having to rely on a transient workforce of backpackers to work in restaurants, resorts and hotels, particularly in rural and remote areas. The Palmer United safe haven enterprise visa will complement this industry sector with people who are available and willing to work.

Australia's banana industry in Queensland is relying on backpackers to work on the banana plantations. Backpackers only work for up to six months at a time as their primary objective is to travel and experience our great country. Rural and regional farmers need to retrain staff on a constant basis. This is both stressful and inefficient for the farmers. While it is wonderful that young people from all over the world are opting to experience our great country, we also need to recognise that the needs of regional rural and regional Australia need to be given priority. In speaking with farmers, there is no doubt they would prefer to have available a more reliable and long-term base of employees. Farmers would prefer to employ Aussie kids, but, for one reason or another, many of the kids today want to move to the city—to the big smoke—to work and do not want to stay in their home country towns and rural centres. The Palmer United SHEV will support Australia's rural and regional communities by introducing into these communities genuine refugees who are keen to build a new life for themselves and their families in our great country. Genuine refugees will be placed across areas where there is support and the infrastructure to facilitate their integration into Australia and where there are jobs and opportunities for work, study and social integration.

Upon completion of the five-year Palmer United SHEV, and subject to meeting visa requirements, SHEV holders will be able to apply for a number of other onshore visas which could provide a pathway to permanent residency. These visas include a number of different opportunities, including study visas and work visas. The Palmer United safe haven enterprise visa provides a clear, genuine and honest pathway to permanent residency for authentic refugees who are prepared to work hard, contribute to the settlement and integration of themselves and their families into our great, generous and welcoming nation, build a future for themselves and contribute to the continuing growth of our wonderful country—just like many of our forefathers, uncles, aunties and other ancestors have done in the past and will continue to do into the future.

It is also important to note that the Palmer United SHEV will also provide access to: work rights and unrestricted study; employment services and mutual obligation arrangements; Medicare; income support; torture and trauma counselling; translating and interpreting services; complex case support; and education for school age d children. The Palmer United safe haven enterprise visa will encourage enterprise through earning and learning , while also strengthening regional Australia.

My dear friend and respected colleague Senator Wang is an example of how Australia can benefit from the wonderful talents and contributions of people from other countries. In 2003, Senator Wang arrived in Australia on a student visa to study urban planning and civil engineering at the University of Melbourne. Senator Wang was a diligent student , and , in 2006 , applied for and received permanent residency in Australia. In 2009, Senator Wang gained Australian citizenship. In 2013 — and again in 201 4— Senator Wang was voted into the Australian Senate to represent his wonderful state of Western Australia. Senator Wang is a shining example of what can be achieved when Australia embraces people from other countries.

In summary, I would like to quote a Japanese proverb: t he reputation of a thousand years may be determined by the conduct of one hour. In this Senate on this day, we have the opportunity to put right the disgraceful way our country has been treating asylum seekers who have suffered greatly at the hands of policy which has seen young children—unaccompanied young children—held in detention on Christmas Island. We have the chance to start to put right our reputation abroad—a reputation which has been tarnished by our treatment of desperate people purely seeking to escape from war-torn countries, famine, disease, evil extremists, torture, fascist regimes and heartless violence. We have the chance to work together to put in place legislation and mechanisms to give clarity to the futures of asylum seekers and to provide real opportunities and a clear pathway for genuine refugees seeking to contribute to our country and their own futures as members of our great nation. W e have the chance to create history which will re-determine our country's approach to human kind. I can not allow young children to be kept in detention. I cannot continue to be part of what is Australia's shame. I cannot allow our international reputation to be trashed any further. And , importantly and most critically, I cannot stand idly by and 22 allow my country — my thoroughly decent country of which I am so , so very proud — to continue to treat people in such a deplorable way. To stand idly by knowing that wrongs are happening without intervening is equal to being party to the wrongdoing.

On behalf of the Palmer United Party I would like to thank the government for relenting to our demands to ensure that Australia meets its international obligations. Specifically, I would like to thank the government for agreeing to Palmer United's demands to fast track consideration of asylum seekers, implementing the Palmer United safe haven enterprise visa, providing real and genuine pathway opportunities for refugees to build a life for themselves in Australia while contributing to the ongoing growth of our great nation, removing children from detention, and demonstrating that Australia is a nation of compassion, of humility, of generosity and a nation which acknowledges, values and appreciates the benefits of migration.

Palmer United has worked hard to develop the idea of the safe haven enterprise visa, and it is pleasing to be here today to see our idea implemented, as the Palmer United SHEV will help to build our great nation while helping to rebuild people's lives.

I recognise that the bill in its entirety is not perfect. I agree that there will be need to make improvements to the bill and these amendments over time. However, the key is ensuring that we get our country moving. We cannot keep people locked up any longer. We cannot keep children locked up any longer. We must do something. We cannot continue to argue about what we must do; we must do something and something that moves our country in the right direction. While people argue, while political parties engage in posturing, while people attempt to point score, human beings including children are being locked up in detention. The Palmer United solution gets people out of detention, gives people hope, gives people a genuine pathway for the future and starts to turn around our badly damaged reputation internationally. This is only the beginning. Once we have ensured the current group of asylum seekers are assisted and the children are removed from detention, we will then start to look at Manus Island and Nauru.

What I do need to let the people of Australia know is that I am personally disgusted by the way our country has treated asylum seekers. What is really concerning is that Australia has been treating asylum seekers this way for years, and I think all of us in this place should shoulder some of the blame. It is unacceptable that Australia has allowed so many asylum seekers—men, women and children—to be kept in detention in such poor conditions.

We cannot send people back to their own countries where they will face harm and persecution. We cannot simply dump them into our society without appropriate support and the opportunity to build a future for themselves so they can become taxpayers and fully participating members of our society. And we cannot lose sight of the fact that our own people need our focus, attention and support as well. We need to move forward, even if we move bit by bit, in the right direction, in the right way.

I would like to assure the people of Australia that I, along with my Palmer United colleague Senator Dio Wang am committed to removing the children in detention from Christmas Island before Christmas. We all should want children in detention to experience the joys of being a kid and experiencing a traditional Aussie Christmas filled with laughter, love and the excitement of opening presents.