Kerry Nettle (NSW, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs, Senator Vanstone, and it relates to the eight Burmese asylum seekers who are currently on Christmas Island. The minister announced, I think on the day that the legislation to send all asylum seekers to Nauru was withdrawn, that she wanted to send them to Nauru. Will the minister be exercising her ministerial public interest power to ensure that these asylum seekers’ claims are assessed in Australia rather than them being taken to Nauru? Given Burma’s appalling human rights record, the strong likelihood that these Burmese asylum seekers may be found to be genuine refugees, the fact that they have Australian based lawyers, the history of psychological damage experienced by detainees on Nauru and that it is highly unlikely that any third country resettlement could be found, how can the minister argue that it is in the public interest to send these asylum seekers to Nauru?

Amanda Vanstone (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Nettle for the question. By way of clarification, if the day mentioned by Senator Nettle was in fact the day relating to a particular bill, it was not a bill to send all asylum seekers to Nauru; it was a bill to send all unauthorised boat arrivals, whether they are seeking asylum or otherwise, to Nauru. That is just a point worth mentioning because so many people seek to treat unauthorised boat arrivals and asylum seekers as being one and the same, and they need not be. As to the Burmese record in relation to human rights, there are clearly questions around that—questions that are shared by the international community. Senator Nettle may not be aware that we expect in this financial year to take I think 1½ times as many as we took last time from Burma. The number we are looking at is about 1,500 this year and it was about 900 last year—mainly Korean people from refugee camps in Thailand.

The senator then goes on, in posing her question, to say it is highly unlikely that a third country could be found to take these people. There are two things that I want to say about this, but let me finish that point. I am not sure that the senator’s lack of confidence is well placed, but the government policy is that if you are an unauthorised boat arrival you will be processed offshore. I do intend that these people will go to Nauru, but the senator should not assume from that answer that work is not already under way in relation to what would happen after that. There are some other things that, believe me, Senator, I would like to share with you now, but I do not think that is going to assist their case at all. I will say this much: it is also true that, if there are a number of people waiting for assessment who might all be declared refugees, it is perhaps a quintessential case of someone jumping the queue. We will always adopt a policy of strong border protection, whereby we will take people who have been assessed by the UN as being refugees out of refugee camps. We will give them our priority, not those who choose an alternative path.

Kerry Nettle (NSW, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask a supplementary question. Can the minister confirm that these asylum seekers are of the Rohingya ethnic minority? Does the minister acknowledge that the Burmese government has an appalling human rights record, particularly in relation to the Rohingya minority? Is the minister aware that Rohingyas in Burma are denied citizenship; they cannot travel without permission; their land has been confiscated and given to other ethnic groups; they have been subjected to slave labour; and many have been beaten, jailed and persecuted by the Burmese authorities? Is the minister also aware that the Malaysian government deported more than 20 Rohingya Burmese refugees to Burma last year? Why, for the first time in 4½ years, is the minister proposing to send these Burmese asylum seekers from the Rohingya minority to Nauru?

Amanda Vanstone (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I do have to say that I sometimes wonder whether you think there are any people in your constituency who are Australian citizens and would benefit from your time and attention as opposed to citizens of the world at large. It is up to you to choose where you put your efforts. I have already made it clear that there are concerns about the Burmese human rights record. That is why this government has increased its intake from I think fewer than 20 a few years ago up to 900 in the last financial year and I think 1,500 in the next financial year. I thought that was as clear as a bell. There is agreement on that issue. As to the specifics of these particular people and the Malaysian government, I will look at what you say and, if there is anything I want to add, I will come back to you.