Nick McKim (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

This bill that is before us today, the Social Services and Other Legislation Amendment (Promoting Sustainable Welfare) Bill 2018, is the subject of a dirty deal done dirt cheap at the stroke of midnight between the Labor Party and the LNP. They've stitched up, under the cover of darkness, a bill that is a massive step backwards for multiculturalism in this country. It is a Trumpesque punishment of migrants in this country that Labor have stitched up with the Liberal Party so that they can get a few budget savings in before they take government next year and so they don't have to wear the flak as a government for doing this. This is a disgusting, disgraceful attack on some of the most vulnerable people in our community, and the Australian Greens will not have a bar of it.

What we've got here is the first taste of what legislation under a Labor government might look like when they win the election in the next six months. And the flavour of this legislation is just a slightly less potent form of the xenophobia that Minister Dutton, Prime Minister Morrison and One Nation have inflicted on the people of our country. This bill will inflict poverty, misery, destitution and homelessness on many thousands of people who are trying to get by and who have come here to make a contribution to our community and to make a contribution to the future of this country. It is straight out of the One Nation playbook, and Labor have signed onto it in a disgraceful cop-out, in a terrible sellout of migrants in Australia.

This bill punishes migrants because the LNP think it's in their political interests to do so and Labor have collapsed in a most spineless and cowardly way. What you're about to see in this Senate is conclusive proof that, if Labor had held onto their position, if Labor had rediscovered their spine, this bill would have gone down in the Senate, and the status quo would have remained. But, no, Labor stitched up a dirty deal under the cover of darkness to do over migrants in this country, and they should be ashamed.

It's interesting that Senator Cameron, who was sent in here by the right-wing powerbrokers of the Labor Party to front Labor's pathetic arguments for doing their deal today, has now fled the chamber and is not prepared to stand here and listen to the massive error of his ways. Labor have collapsed out of sheer cowardice on this legislation.

A lot of Labor people get upset when I keep pointing out their horrible voting record, because it pricks their conscience, let's face it, and I understand that many Australians want to see the progressive parties in this chamber work together. But how are we expected to work with Labor when they continually side with Peter Dutton to lock up innocent men, women and children on Nauru? They voted just this week to make it easier to send the Defence Force out onto Australian streets, potentially to use lethal force against Australian citizens, and now they're in here today doing over vulnerable migrants.

We cannot work with the Labor Party on these issues. It is our job in this place to stand up for the rule of law, to stand up for migrants, to stand up for refugees. We will continue to do it, and we will proudly continue to do it. Please, Labor, spare us and the Australian people this absolute nonsense about how the deal you've stitched up with the LNP is somehow better than a deal with One Nation. That is a big fat Labor lie, and it's about to be exposed when the division on the second reading of this bill occurs today. We will conclusively prove that, if Labor had held its ground, this bill would have gone down in the Senate, and the status quo would have remained.

You can bleat all you like about making life better for migrants with your dirty deal with Scott Morrison and Peter Dutton. You can bleat all you like about it, but at the end of the day the proof will be in the pudding. That pudding will be baked when the division occurs on the floor of this Senate today. You will see the conclusive proof that, if you'd held your ground, you could have delivered a great outcome for migrants, but instead you've sold your souls, yet again, stitching up a deal to do over migrants and to make life far more difficult for many thousands of people who've come to this place to make a better life.

This is a Labor bill—make no mistake about it—because, if Labor hadn't stitched up a dirty deal, this bill would not be passing. You've got a government on its knees, in minority in the House of Representatives—absolutely down on their knees, falling apart before our very eyes. But Labor couldn't help themselves; they had to stitch up a deal, under the cover of darkness, to do over migrants. What a pathetic mob they are!

Let's be clear about this, Labor: you don't sit down at the table with racists and xenophobes. You do not compromise with those people. You don't take just the roughest edges off the agenda while passing 95 per cent of what they want and claim it as some kind of victory. What you do is: you stand up to them. You defeat them—you defeat them in the public debate, you defeat them on the streets, and you defeat them in this place. You don't cosy up to them with a pathetic deal, done under the cover of darkness, to do over migrants, like the Labor Party has in the last 24 hours.

But you know what? Once again, you're staying true to your history as a party. Look at the history of the Labor Party. This is what they do. Over its entire history, Labor has spent more of its history supporting the White Australia policy than they have opposing it. Racism and xenophobia have deep roots inside the Labor Party, and they've come to the surface today.

Your willingness to work with Minister Dutton and Prime Minister Morrison to torture refugees on Manus Island and Nauru is yet another example of that. You've refused to free the innocent children, men and women who are coming up on six years now in offshore detention since you put the overwhelming majority of them there in the first place. You disgust me! The Labor Party disgusts me.

You've refused to block the Adani coalmine. You go out and try to convince people you've got some decent climate plan, but you support the biggest climate-wrecking project in Australia's history. You won't commit to increasing Newstart, even while some people wither and suffer in poverty in this country and simply don't get enough to get by. And, as I said, just this week you voted to make it easier to send the Army out onto the streets to use lethal force against the Australian people.

Well, the Australian people are entitled to ask themselves: what kind of government—what kind of Labor government—are they going to vote in next year? I'll tell you what: if you want to be considered as any kind of progressive government when you win the election next year, you're going to have to do a lot better than you're doing at the moment. We cannot hope to properly come together in this place to fight racism, xenophobia and inequality while the Labor Party supports absolute rubbish like this legislation.

Now, a couple of comments on Senator Cameron's contribution. He had the absolute gall to trot out the old saying, 'Only the impotent are pure.' Well, if Senator Cameron's forgotten his history of the Labor Party, that was said by Gough Whitlam when he was trying to eat up and attack the left wing of his own party—the faction that Senator Cameron purports to be a part of. I can't believe he has quoted Whitlam, when Whitlam was trying to do over the left wing of the Labor Party with that quote. That was a little bit of a history lesson, because some of us don't forget when this stuff was said, who said it and the context in which it was said.

There has been a bit said about the positions of ACOSS and FECCA on this legislation. If you want to think what ACOSS and FECCA really think about this legislation, not what they've said in the last 24 hours, let's look at what they said about this legislation when it came to a parliamentary inquiry. ACOSS concluded:

There is no valid justification for this Bill. This Bill would simply serve to make life harder for recent migrants and their families.

The Australian Greens could not agree more with ACOSS's original position on this bill. Similarly, the Federation of Ethnic Communities' Councils of Australia said:

FECCA believes the proposed Bill would impose considerable hardship, and create an underclass of migrants who find themselves facing dire financial circumstances as they try to settle into Australia

The Australian Greens could not agree more with FECCA's original position on this bill. FECCA also said:

FECCA strongly believes that permanent migrants and their children should enjoy the same benefits as all residents, and that their transition to life in Australia should not be made more difficult, particularly when they have been acknowledged as possessing skills that are critical to our future prosperity.

The Australian Greens could not agree more with FECCA's original position on this bill.

Let's think about the philosophy behind this bill. What Labor and the Liberals are saying to recently arrived migrants is: you're expected to work and pay taxes in this country, but you don't get the benefit of the social security safety net that your taxes are paying for. In what world is that fair? On what planet was this a good deal for Labor to do? I'll tell you: on no planet, in no world, was this a good deal for Labor to do. They've copped out, they've sold out. The people who lose out are going to be recently arrived migrants in this country, some of whom will find it difficult to find work because together the major parties have established a system in this country where there is simply not enough work for everyone and they will be denied access to Newstart for four years. Inadequate as Newstart is, as Senator Siewert so eloquently put it, it's a whole lot better than nothing—and nothing is what you are voting together today to deliver to recently arrived migrants in the first four years that they are in this country.

I'm not surprised that Labor members have got their heads down. I'm not surprised they're sitting pretending to play on the iPads and iPhones, because they're deeply ashamed, or they should be, about the dirty deal that's been stitched up here. Unbelievable! Pathetic! Disgusting and disgraceful! That's how I feel about the Labor Party, and this is a classic example of why you need the Greens in the Senate: to hold Labor to account, make them more progressive and point out when they fall flat on their face and stitch up dirty deals with the LNP, the racists and the xenophobes in this place. This is why you need the Greens in the Senate to hold Labor to account, to force them to be a more progressive party than their history suggests they will be in government when they win the election next year.

It is so crucial that Labor is not allowed to win government and stitch up deals with One Nation, which this deal they have done shows that they are prepared to do. This is why you need the Greens in the Senate. This is why you need a Labor government held to account by the Greens in the Senate, and we will proudly continue to point out the perfidy, the secrecy, of this deal and its horrendous impact on some of the most vulnerable people in our country.