Jacinta Collins (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Parliamentary Secretary for School Education and Workplace Relations) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I seek leave to move a motion to vary the routine of business for today.

Leave not granted.

Pursuant to contingent notice standing in the name of the Leader of the Government in the Senate, Senator Conroy, I move:

That so much of the standing orders be suspended as would prevent Senator Conroy moving a motion to provide for the consideration of a matter, namely a motion to give precedence to a motion to vary the routine of business today.

For the benefit of senators in the chamber, the motion that I am seeking to move would allow for consideration of general business private senators' bills under temporary order 57(1)(d)(ia) not to be proceeded with and for government business to have precedence from 9.30 for two hours and 20 minutes.

This matter arises to allow for the Senate to consider the very important issues around asylum seekers getting on boats and coming to the mainland. A further incident this week has highlighted the ongoing concerns around our inability to implement the full recommendations of the Houston report. Senators will be aware that government business order of the day No. 2, Migration Amendment (Unauthorised Maritime Arrivals and Other Measures) Bill 2012 has been on the Notice Paper this week and, with cooperation from the opposition, the urgency of this matter has been accepted today so that we deal with this matter this morning rather than the private senators' business legislation and the reinstatement of temporary protection visas, for which there is no agreement.

On that basis I highlight that we need to deal with the issues around people smugglers, who continue to evolve their tactics and will use any trick in the book to try and evade authorities. Border Protection Command uses an intelligence-led approach to the deployment of their aerial and surveillance assets in order to ensure the most rapid deployment in response to distress calls or to intercept suspected irregular entry vessels. However, as we have seen in recent times, three of such ships arrived directly onto our borders.

Whatever you think of this wretchedly difficult policy area, the government of the day should be given the power it thinks it needs to stop the boats. That is what has been denied previously in this debate. I am pleased that today we are able to progress this particular recommendation of the Houston report. We need to implement all of the recommendations of the Houston expert panel, including the Malaysian solution, but we welcome the opportunity to deal with this one today.

Mitch Fifield (Victoria, Liberal Party, Manager of Opposition Business in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I indicate to the chamber that we will be supporting the government in this matter. The opposition always takes a cooperative and practical approach to the management of business in this chamber. This is an important piece of legislation, and we are happy to facilitate its debate and passage so that it can be concluded today.

Christine Milne (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

What an absolute disgrace it is that we have now got the coalition and government working together to engage in what has been previously described by the Labor Party as a stain on our national character. You are right: it is a stain on our national character. As Mr Bowen said in 2006, it is a bad bill with no redeeming features—a bad bill with no redeeming features for which you are seeking to suspend standing orders and to bring on here in a rush, with the support of the coalition.

I am not surprised that the coalition support it, because it is their bill. It is what former Prime Minister John Howard tried to bring into this parliament. The nation was horrified at the prospect that a prime minister would seek to wipe Australia off the map in order to avoid our global obligations under the refugee convention. It is an affront to the decency of the whole Australian nation. I am shocked that the Labor Party have now abandoned any sense of decency.

The Prime Minister was out this week trying to sell a budget which she says will deliver a fairer Australia—great!—a fairer Australia in which we wipe the entire country off the map when it comes to decency and human rights and which imposes what the Labor Party itself has described as a stain on the national character. This policy takes away the legal rights of asylum seekers. They will no longer be recognised if they land on Australian mainland territory. That is what this is about. It is not about looking at why people are seeking asylum in the first place, what is driving people to leave their countries. It is a failure to recognise that deterrence does not and has not worked. In fact, three or four times more people have arrived here seeking asylum since you brought in crueller and crueller policies—policies lacking in compassion.

I see that several members of the Labor Party who go around the country to forums and refugee conventions, who hold positions in United Nations organisations, saying, 'I don't agree with it,' are not here. Where are you today, Senator Singh? Where are you today? Where are all of these people in the Labor Party who stand up around the country saying they uphold the United Nations conventions? Where are you? Today Labor are standing with the coalition, delivering what John Howard could not. But in 2006 you did not think it was fair, and it was not; you did not think it was legal, and it was not; you did not think it was decent in terms of international law, and indeed it was not. This demonstrates once and for all why people are so disappointed that a government that says it wants to deliver a fair Australia is doing nothing of the sort. It is not only delivering an unfair Australia; it is delivering an Australia which is increasingly, in the international context, becoming a disgrace.

Here we are, elected to the United Nations Security Council. What does the rest of the world think of us now that we are going to excise our entire nation from the map so that we can be crueller to refugees, crueller to people seeking asylum? It is a stain on our national character.

The motion for the suspension of standing orders because of urgency implies that it is more urgent than normal to do what is an affront to international law, an affront to decency in this country. You want it to be more urgent than it otherwise would be, because the urgency is that you want to be crueller, Senator Collins—I am glad you think this is amusing—

Jacinta Collins (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Parliamentary Secretary for School Education and Workplace Relations) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Oh, come on, Christine! I was responding to something Senator Sterle said.

Christine Milne (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

As I indicated a moment ago, it is not urgent to be crueller, it is not urgent to excise the whole country and it is not urgent to stop people making valid visa applications. In fact, what the Labor Party is now doing, far from making us a stronger, smarter, fairer country, as I said and I will say again tonight, is making us a weaker, dumber, meaner country. (Time expired)

Scott Ludlam (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The question is that the motion to suspend standing orders be agreed to.

Jacinta Collins (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Parliamentary Secretary for School Education and Workplace Relations) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That a motion to vary the routine of business for today may be moved immediately and have precedence over all other business today till determined.

Scott Ludlam (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The question is that the motion be agreed to.

Jacinta Collins (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Parliamentary Secretary for School Education and Workplace Relations) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That—

(a) consideration of general business private senators’ bills under temporary order 57(1)(d)(ia) shall not be proceeded with; and

(b) government business shall have precedence from 9.30 am for 2 hours and 20 minutes.

Question agreed to.

I move:

That intervening business be postponed till after consideration of government business order of the day no. 2, the Migration Amendment (Unauthorised Maritime Arrivals and Other Measures) Bill 2012.

Question agreed to.