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

While Hakeem al-Araibi's return to Australia was an absolutely joyous event, we can't look past the fact that he was detained in Thailand and spent months locked up fearing for his very life and that this was clearly because of decisions and mistakes made by Australian government agencies. As a refugee and permanent resident of this country, Hakeem was owed a duty of care. Australian authorities failed him and that failure could have cost him his life. We need to find out what happened so we can do everything we can to stop it happening again. To just inquire into this in Senate estimates will not result in recommendations being made and will not result in the required lengthy examination of the key people involved in the decision to dob Hakeem into the Thai authorities, a government with a death penalty. I trust the Senate will back this motion.