Nita Green (Queensland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to oppose the Migration Amendment (Repairing Medical Transfers) Bill 2019. In doing so, Labor stands with numbers of doctors, lawyers, refugee advocates, human rights groups and the United Nations in opposing the repeal of medical transfer provisions. That's the list of people this government doesn't want to listen to and doesn't want to believe: doctors, lawyers and human rights groups. The government don't really talk about the people involved in this legislation; they want to talk about it in abstract terms and use terms like 'bad character', but the truth is we are talking about people here who are in need of medical treatment. Medevac laws have the support from this broad range of people, community groups and experts because the laws are working well. The medevac laws are ensuring that sick people get the medical care that they need, and the minister has final discretion to refuse transfers on national security, public safety or character grounds.

Government senators seem to believe that they can just say something in here and it just comes true—that they can say something about a bill and its effect and it's just true. They say a lot of things in this debate that are misleading. They've sprouted many myths about this law, its effect, its legal obligations, what the effect on the minister is, how it affects people with bad character and what the government's record is on these matters. Labor believes that Australians do want strong borders. We also believe that when someone is sick and someone needs our help we will give it to them. Australians do understand the difference. It is an insult to the Australian people that this government thinks that they can't see the distinction between those two things—that the Australian people can't tell the difference between having strong borders and helping people who are desperately ill. They think that people in the community can't tell the difference, but this law that the government is trying to repeal is that distinction. The medevac laws are the distinction that Australians are seeking. Australians see the difference, and that is why Labor supported the laws in the first place and why it opposes the government's amendments now.

The other contribution that I wanted to make to the debate tonight is around the discussion about this legislation and about the impact that this government's failure to properly manage offshore detention has had on our relationship with Papua New Guinea. I travelled to Papua New Guinea earlier in the year. My constituency have an extremely close connection with PNG. The connection between Cairns and PNG is incredibly close. Some people refer to Port Moresby as a suburb of Cairns. There is also a very strong connection between the people of the Torres Strait and PNG. PNG is so close to where Queensland finishes that you can ride a dinghy from one side to the other. People joke about being able to shout from one island and be heard on the other. Boigu and Saibai islands are very close to PNG. For thousands of years there have been special customs between the people living in PNG and the people living in the Torres Strait. That is why we have a special customary border zone, which allows the movement of people for the purpose of trade. We have a special border zone between the Torres Strait and PNG where people can come and go, if they have a permit, for trade purposes. Often I am told by people in the Torres Strait that the purposes for trade are loosely defined, and we do get people who come across whose families live on one island and they on the other. There are some concerns and risks involved, particularly around health care, but this is a customary practice that has been going on for thousands of years.

When I was in PNG I visited two hospitals and a health clinic. It was pretty eye opening and heartbreaking to go to a hospital in PNG and sit on the bed next to a small boy who was unable to move from malnutrition and a mother who was sitting by his side willing him to get better. The health conditions and health care available in PNG are heartbreaking, because they do live so close. They live a small dinghy ride away from where Queensland stops, yet the health care that is available to people in PNG, with the many challenges that PNG faces, of eight million people that live in terribly difficult geographic—