Kim Carr (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research) Share this | Hansard source

This is the Home Affairs (Miscellaneous Measures) Bill 2018, and it's important to get context here. It's a simple set of amendments to various pieces of legislation. The government, in its own chicanery, has caught itself out by failing to actually deal with what was a non-controversial bill, which it listed, delisted and listed again. It would normally have been done in non-controversial legislation last year—it was listed for some time—but it was, of course, caught up in the melee of last December. And now we have a set of circumstances where we've got some amendments moved to a bill which deal with the fundamental question—put aside all the palaver—of Australia's duty of care in terms of the provision of urgent medical support for people for whom we have direct responsibility insofar as our duty of care extends in circumstances where the medical support on Nauru, in particular, has not been good enough. It's a simple proposition. We've heard a shrill, irrational, hysterical approach from this government, who's prepared to say and do anything to cover up the facts—to cover up the facts, I repeat—to leak what they claim was to be these incredibly important security issues, to do whatever they need to, to lie and to deceive, and to just cover up the incredible chaos and dysfunction within this government.

I say this in this simple context. The great Achilles heel of this government's approach is some simple facts of life. Under this government, the minister said himself on TV last night that they have transferred a significant number of people here from Nauru 'either for medical attention or people in a family unit'. He said that, so I went and checked the figures. What we find is that some 460 people have been transferred from Nauru and Manus according to Senate estimates. Of course, various family members were transferred as well. Nearly 900 people have been transferred. Has that been a signal to the people smugglers? Has that led to the situation where our fundamental national security has been put at risk? Nine hundred people have been transferred under this government in circumstances where the government sought to keep it quiet.

So it seems to be the situation that if 900 people are transferred by this government, there's no threat to our borders and no threat to our national security, but if there's a proposition brought forward where we actually regulate the circumstances under which people are moved, for urgent medical treatment under strict supervision, under circumstances where the ministerial discretions are maintained, it actually improves the security that seems to be in deterioration. That's the claim that has been put to the Senate. We've actually got double the number of people being moved off the islands than are being moved to the United States. Double. Have we had an increase in the number of boats arriving? No. The evidence is clearly against the hysterical claims that this dysfunctional, chaotic government is seeking to make.

Nine hundred people are moved by this government, and the sky hasn't fallen in. But under these provisions we have proper medical supervision and independent medical advice, and the minister maintains his or her discretion to secure this country, we maintain our duty of care, yet this government tries to turn it on its head, given its own record. There is a fundamental lie at work here, which should be exposed by this Senate. I believe this Senate has a duty to support these amendments and support the message that has come back from the House of Representatives.