Barry O'Sullivan (Queensland, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

Well, they've got the choice already. If they've been determined to be refugees, they can settle in Papua New Guinea or they can apply to go to the United States. As to all of this rhetoric that comes out of the Greens about going to New Zealand: they already know what will happen. That will re-open people coming on the high seas into this part of the world, and more men, women, and children—whose lives you do not and have not valued or ever recognised—will perish at sea again. More people will die.

So we've got these people at Manus Island who've got choices. We've had the government of PNG declare publicly that there are other facilities to which they can go today. So they can move to these facilities. As to the standards and the care that they will receive, that, to date, has cost the Australian government $11 billion. That's 11,000 million dollars to support these people. And here you would think that somehow we've left them with a fig leaf over their vital parts, that we won't feed them or water them and that we won't give them health and psychiatric support.

One of the things that has never been recognised is this: say I were a refugee or had determined myself to be a refugee, and I had fled my country and had come, via all sorts of routes, on the high seas, on boats that should have had 50 people on them but had 500 on them, and had gone through the immense trauma of that journey to this place, and had watched my brothers and sisters and mother and father and children die, nameless, with no ceremony, no grave and no place to rest. It does not surprise me that many of these people find themselves in a conflicted position. It does not surprise me that many of these people feel traumatised. And what has our government done? We have provided exceptional health and support services for these people—so much so that many Australians in need of health and psychiatric care do not get care of the same standard that these people get it and don't get it within the same time frame. And Senator McKim knows this. This is the problem. These facts are inconvenient. And that's why we hear him over here, bellowing like an old bull caught in a barbed wire fence. Seriously, Senator McKim—as to what you've tried to portray here, you've been a single voice. You don't have any support from your colleagues. They're all silent around this question.

Senator McKim interjecting—

No; they're all here today to wave their arms around for 10 minutes while you speak, but they've been silent on this in the public. You are a minority voice, and often—as I've said about other colleagues in this place sitting opposite—you are simply an expression waiting for a thought to follow. You do not think through your statements, and you come in here with this confected anger that you've directed at the government, who have unravelled what was a humanitarian crisis—

Senator McKim interjecting—

Mr Acting Deputy President Gallacher, I suffer from a condition called sensitive ear, and I have to step away from foghorns, and senators are interrupting me while I am speaking. I would ask that you ask Senator McKim to give me the respect that I give him.

There are difficulties up there. There are difficulties up there, because Senator McKim and his predecessor, Senator Hanson-Young, have being going up there consistently to stir these people up there. They go there to give them absolute false hope. They go up there to convince them to engage in civil disobedience—which, of course, is one of the tools in their tool bag. They want them to resist. He talks about communicating with them all the time and giving them advice. Why don't you release any communications that you've got—texts and emails—with any of these people in this camp, so that we can make an assessment as to what sound advice you're giving them or, more likely than not, not giving them.

Senator Rhiannon interjecting—

Senator, fancy that coming from you! Fancy you suggesting to me that I'm not telling the truth here. I just asked a question, and you need to get your colleague to provide those communications so that this Senate can make a judgement on them.

Senator McKim interjecting—

I had an old utility that had a squeak like that and I got rid of it, and the Senate ought to get rid of you. In closing, this government has set an example to the world in terms of managing what has been a very difficult situation that it inherited from Labor and the Greens.

Senator McKim interjecting—