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

The Australian Greens oppose schedule 2 in the following terms:

(2) Schedule 2, page 24 (line 1) to page 49 (line 23), to be opposed.

The Greens propose to delete schedule 2 from the bill. We know that much debate around this legislation has been focused on schedule 2. This is the part of the bill that includes legislating for temporary protection visas and allowing for regulations for SHEVs. The reason, fundamentally, the Greens do not support this schedule is because people who have been found to be legitimate, genuine refugees after all of the anguish they have been through—fleeing their homelands and going through the detention process—under this schedule will continue to live in limbo, effectively for the rest of their lives. Many of the 30,000 we are currently talking about are already having to live in the community in limbo. There is absolutely no genuine pathway to permanency outlined in this schedule at all. It is a long road—

The CHAIRMAN: Senator Hanson-Young—

I have this really irritating voice next to me and then I realise it is Senator Bernardi.

The CHAIRMAN: I know; I can hear it from here. I was not hearing it clearly. Senator Bernardi—

Senator Bernardi interjecting—

The CHAIRMAN: No, take your seat—take your own seat.

Sometimes I wonder whether we should have breathalysers at the doors in this place.

The CHAIRMAN: Senator Hanson-Young, resume your seat. There is no requirement for that. Senator Bernardi, I would ask you to remain quiet—silent, in fact.

Senator Bernardi interjecting—

The CHAIRMAN: If you are seeking to lag in Senator Lazarus as well, I am sure he will appreciate that. But you are the one I can hear, and I ask you to remain silent while Senator Hanson-Young is speaking.

As I was saying, this schedule, as it currently stands, does not create a permanent pathway for refugees. People who have been through the process and have been assessed as a refugee under the current schedule do not have a pathway to permanency. If you are on a temporary protection visa, you will never be given a permanent visa. That is what the minister has said, and that is what this piece of legislation currently before us tonight does. You may be able to opt to go on to the newly created SHEV under this schedule, but it is going to be damn hard for you to ever be able to apply for a permanent visa.

That is not just me saying that, it is the minister himself. The immigration minister himself stood up and said: 'There will be no permanent protection for refugees in this country. Good luck to them if they think they're going to get permanency, but it is a very high bar.' They are the minister's own words, that is the sentiment as outlined in this schedule. It is a pipe dream to think that there is any pathway to permanency under this schedule. It allows for the continued torture of people who just want to start putting their lives back together. You have to remember that this is for people who have already been assessed to be refugees. They have been in detention for years, many of them in the community on bridging visas for years—in limbo, not knowing what their future holds. Under this schedule they will stay there effectively forever. There is no pathway to permanency; it is a pathway to nowhere. That is why it needs to be removed.