Mathias Cormann (WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Pursuant to standing order 74(5), I ask Minister Carr, in his capacity as Minister representing the Minister for Immigration: why has no answer has been forthcoming in response to question 1,104 regarding the riots on Christmas Island in March 2011?

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

I thank Senator Cormann for his question, and I thank him for providing notice of this inquiry. I have the following information from the minister:

The question posed by the senator seeks information on persons who were involved in the riots on Christmas Island in March of 2011. The question is now six days overdue.

I can assure the Senate that the department is committed to providing Senator Cormann with an accurate and complete response to this question and all its relevant subparts. In order to address all the issues raised by Senator Cormann's questions and subparts, the department has been required to consult extensively with all those agencies and organisations who were involved in this particular incident. In particular, the department has had extensive consultations with the government's contracted detention service provider, Serco, whose input obviously is vital to ensuring that the senator does receive a comprehensive and accurate answer.

In addition, the department has advised me that they are consulting with the Australian Federal Police, who, I am sure the Senator would be aware, were involved in the investigation and the subsequent compilation of the briefs of evidence for consideration by the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions. As this matter is still before the courts, the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions was also consulted in relation to the current court proceedings which are on foot in relation to the 22 that have been accused and whether or not there have been any developments on each individual case.

Bearing all these factors in mind, the department has had a significant amount of work involved in obtaining all the relevant information from all the various parties involved. I am advised that, nonetheless, the department is fully committed to provide an answer to the senator's question as soon as possible.

Mathias Cormann (WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the explanation.

I will not hold the Senate up for long, you will be pleased to know, Mr Deputy President. I will just observe, though, that this is a very important issue and that the answers to these questions are overdue. While we appreciate getting accurate and comprehensive answers, we also want to have answers in a timely fashion that help us in this chamber to participate in a timely fashion in the debates as they happen.

I remind the Senate that back in March 2011 the Australian Federal Police had to use tear gas and shoot beanbag rounds during violent clashes with protesters at the Christmas Island detention centre; that 200 protesters rushed at a police line, throwing rocks at officers after they were called to the centre about 8.15 pm; that the Minister for Immigration and Citizenship, Chris Bowen, had to send an extra 70 staff; and that the Christmas Island fire brigade, who were called to respond, were not able to go in because of safety concerns. Very simply, there were some questions that I had in my capacity as a senator for Western Australia after some constituents had raised this issue with me. The first was: how many people were identified—which I think should by now have been able to be done quite easily—as having been involved in organising or participating in those riots back in March 2011? I think that the department should have that information at its fingertips. I wanted to know how many of the people that had been identified as either organisers or participants had actually been arrested and how many had been charged, and I wanted to know—on behalf of the people of Western Australia, where many constituents have raised this issue with me—how many of them have since been accepted as asylum seekers or been rejected as asylum seekers.

These are pretty straightforward questions, and it should not take the department or the Gillard government—if the Gillard government is committed to appropriate levels of transparency—this long to provide this very simple and readily available information. I can only assume that the Gillard government again has something to hide and that it wants to delay release of this information and time it. Probably they will release it at five o'clock in the afternoon on the Friday before Christmas or something like that so that there is minimum scrutiny. Certainly it would not want this sort of information to be part of the current debate about the absolute fiasco that is the border protection policy of the Gillard government.

We have had the former minister for porous borders, or minister for immigration, Senator Evans, today not being able to answer a question from Senator Abetz. Of course, this government is ducking and weaving. It does not know where to go. It is trying to hide information. It is embarrassed by the absolutely devastating impact that the dismantling of the Howard government's solution to the border protection challenges in the late 1990s and early 2000s has created. Of course, here they are at it again. We were promised a new era of openness and transparency, yet what we have again and again is the most secretive government in the history of the Commonwealth, and the government will stand condemned for it.

Question agreed to.