Kristina Keneally (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

To those senators on the other side, it's not a funny subject. It shouldn't be a funny subject, but yet they find it amusing. Let me say this: there is nothing wrong with claiming asylum. It's an important right. But 90 per cent of applications, such as these, are eventually found to be without merit. Even the assistant minister, Jason Wood, warned of his own government's failures last February on this crisis, which is occurring on Minister Dutton's watch and still Minister Dutton has not acted. It's no surprise, when you think about how long it's taken to simply pass this legislation, Minister Peter Dutton doesn't have a plan to deal with the record number of asylum claims occurring on his watch, with the blowout in processing time for partner visas, with the record number of people on bridging visas. And he has no intention to address the further exploitation and slavery-like conditions these trafficked people are experiencing here on Australian soil.

Finally, of course, there is the Ruby Princess, the largest outbreak of coronavirus in Australia. Mr Dutton failed to stop the one boat that mattered. Let's not forget 850 cases of coronavirus and over 30 tragic deaths, 10 per cent of all cases in Australia. The outbreak in north-west Tasmania is all linked to the Ruby Princess.

While state health authorities have responsibility under the federal Biosecurity Act, when it comes to Australia's migration program and our borders the buck is supposed to stop with the home affairs minister, Peter Dutton. Let's not forget it was the Prime Minister who stood up and said he was going to put arriving cruise ships under the direct command of the Australian Border Force. Four days after the Prime Minister said that, the Ruby Princess came into port and let everyone out, spreading—

Government senators interjecting—

I note the interjections on the other side. Suddenly they're a bit more sensitive about border security. They don't particularly care about the slavery-like conditions of the people who have been trafficked here through their airports and made to apply for asylum, but, when you talk about boats and their failure to deal with the one boat that mattered, they suddenly get sensitive.

So here we are. They know what the Australian people now know, which is that you can't trust this government anymore when it comes to our borders, so I will always hold this government to account when it comes to the Home Affairs portfolio and the Migration Act. Labor will work with the government to support sensible reforms, as we are doing today—sensible reforms that took you only six years to bring into the parliament! We're glad this legislation is finally before the Senate. It took only six years and three prime ministers, but here we are, finally, today. And I am pleased to tell you, Madam Deputy Acting Speaker, that Labor will support this sensible, overdue, long-awaited reform.

Maybe now the Minister for Home Affairs could get on and deal with the excessive backlog of partner visas and bridging visas, with the backlog at the AAT, with the fact that the Department of Home Affairs ranks 93 out of 93 departments when it comes to morale and with the fact that a third of the people who work in Home Affairs would rather work somewhere else. Maybe he could get on with the Future Maritime Surveillance Capability project. I mean, it took only six years to do this simple piece of legislation! Maybe now that he's cleared this big project off his plate, he could get on and deal with some of the substantive issues that are plaguing the Department of Home Affairs. And I haven't even mentioned the Paladin cost blow-out and the massive waste of taxpayer dollars there. Given that the Minister for Home Affairs has finally managed to get this substantive piece of legislation off his desk after six years, maybe he could just get on and deal with some of the bigger, more pressing problems that are facing real Australians in our community and could clear up some of the backlogs in his own portfolio. Incompetence is not an excuse for his maladministration.