Andrew Bartlett (Queensland, Australian Democrats) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That this bill be now read a second time.

I seek leave to have the second reading speech incorporated in Hansard.

Leave granted.

The speech read as follows—

This Private Senator’s Bill is one of a number of Migration Act Amendment Bills which I will table in the course of this parliamentary year. This bill seeks to eliminate the Temporary Protection Visa (TPV), which was introduced in November 1999 via the Migration Amendment Regulations 1999 (No.12).

The Democrats opposed the introduction of this visa, which applies to all people assessed as refugees who initially arrived in Australia without a valid visa. When I moved in the Senate to disallow this new type of visa, I expressed abhorrence that a temporary visa policy for refugees that had been widely condemned by all political parties when it was proposed by the One Nation party just a couple of years earlier, was now supported in the Parliament by not only the Coalition but the ALP as well.

The introduction of the TPV is an example of a policy deliberately designed to cause hardship and suffering. It restricts access to settlement assistance and other social services, thus making it harder for refugees to stabilize their lives and integrate effectively into the Australian community.

The TPV was also deliberately designed to prevent family reunion, creating a cruel and extremely stressful mechanism which forces families to stay separated, and created a perverse incentive for the spouse and children to also seek to enter Australia in an unauthorized way, as it was the only way the family could be re-united.

The TPV did nothing to reduce the number of asylum seekers coming to Australia. Indeed, the numbers increased over the following two years. Instead, the TPV was directly responsible for a massive increase in the proportion of women and children undertaking the dangerous journey to travel to Australia. This was most starkly demonstrated with the sinking of the SIEV-X on 19^th October, 2001 which sunk in international waters on its way to Australia, its departure having been facilitated by Indonesian police who forced many people onto the overcrowded boat. Of the 353 people who drowned in that tragedy, 146 were children, 142 were women and only 65 were men. Many of them had spouses already in Australia and this was the only avenue open to them.

The TPV permits the holder to remain in Australia for a period of thirty-six months. They can leave Australia, but have no re-entry right. The Federal Government also restricted temporary protection visa holders from applying for any other type of visa other than a permanent protection visa, which could not be issued (except with the permission of the Minister) until the expiry of the thirty-six month period.

In practice, it has created a four to five year period from the time when a refugee first arrives to when they are likely to be able to obtain permanent residency. The process saw refugees detained for prolonged periods before they were recognised to be ‘genuine’ refugees and released into the community with limited settlement and social service benefits and no right to family reunion. They were typically bussed to urban locations and left to fend for themselves, in stark contrast to the settlement services traditionally provided to refugees that enable prompt integration into the Australian community.

It must be taken into account that many refugees on TPVs are already traumatized by their earlier experiences and by their escape from oppressive regimes and the subsequent perilous journey to Australia. This has then been compounded by periods of mandatory detention. The granting of TPVs only serves to discourage and disable refugees from putting down roots and settling into the Australian community. The mental and emotional anguish that is placed on TPV holders that effectively live in limbo must not be underestimated.

I have met many refugees on TPVs and have never failed to be impressed by their resilience. To their credit; many have found employment, often in unskilled work, despite many of them being highly skilled. Others filled the vacuum in agricultural work or worked in meatworks, helping country towns stay viable doing jobs that other Australians could not be found to do.

For the professionals among them, re-accreditation for Australian registration is extremely difficult and the loss of status and self esteem follow. Humiliation adds to the rejection and alienation being experienced. For those on Special Benefit, unable to find work, life is one of poverty, insecurity and abject despair. Clinical depression is a growing characteristic of the TPV community and raises serious concerns about the long term implications of it.

The Democrats expressed grave concern at the time that a two class refugee system was established in Australia and that in effect the TPV penalises those who have been forced to flee human rights abuses but entered Australia undocumented. It is a clear breach of the Refugee Convention.

When I moved in the Senate on 24^th November, 1999 to disallow the Regulation introducing the TPV, I said it was an immoral and very dangerous precedent. The fears and concerns that I and others such as Senator Brian Harradine voiced on that day have been borne out in practice.

The TPV has done nothing to reduce asylum seekers arrivals, has cost the taxpayers millions of dollars in extra unnecessary re-processing of claims, has harmed Australia by reducing the ability of refugees to integrate into our communities, has separated and destroyed families, has led to more women and children being put in danger and has caused untold suffering to people who were already amongst the most vulnerable and damaged on our planet.

It is time for it to be abolished, and I call on the Senate and the Parliament to support this legislation and make it happen. I commend this bill to the Senate.

I seek leave to continue my remarks later.

Leave granted; debate adjourned.