Richard Di Natale (Victoria, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answer given by the Attorney-General (Senator Brandis) to a question without notice asked by Senator Di Natale today relating to recent media reports concerning people smugglers.

Just when you thought the government could not sink any lower—just when you thought that this debate could not sink to new depths—what we have are allegations through the Indonesian government, relayed by people who were witnesses to the actions of the Australian government, effectively showing that we are engaged in the people-trafficking business. We have crossed a line here. In order to avoid a bad headline, we have Australian government officials involved in people-trafficking. When is this going to stop? At what point will we decide, 'Enough is enough—we cannot continue going down the road that we are on'? We have gag orders to prevent people from speaking out around the conditions in detention. We have doctors, nurses and teachers being prevented from communicating with the Australian community about what is going on in detention centres. This is being done in the name of the Australian community. We have members of parliament being spied on. Young kids in detention are being locked up indefinitely, causing self-harm. Women about to give birth are being denied decent antenatal care. That is where this debate is going, and now we have gone even further. We have put people's lives at risk on the high seas and we have given people smugglers wads of cash in order to do it. We have to stop.

Senator Brandis refused to deny the fact that we are now engaged in bribery. We are paying people large sums of money to avoid a bad headline. That is not the basis of good public policy—it is not. We are being shown up by our regional neighbours. We have the Indonesian foreign minister showing more transparency and accountability than our own government. It is not good enough. Where is this money coming from? From what government department and what program? Is this foreign aid money? Will we find out later that this is contributing to the effort to combat poverty internationally?

Yesterday an order for the production of documents was moved in this place. If the government wants to stand by its claim that it did not break the law, either here in Australia or internationally, it has the opportunity to demonstrate that by providing all of the documents around this activity that has occurred in relation to paying people traffickers. What did we learn in question time today? The government will not produce those documents—it is a matter of national security. Yes, those boats coming from Indonesia are just waiting to take over the Australian mainland. Those people fleeing from oppressive regimes—people from right across the planet leaving regimes that inflict torture and great harm on individuals, including young children—just cannot wait to put our national security at risk. What nonsense.

This debate must end here. We need some leadership—we absolutely, desperately need some leadership. We need a circuit breaker. We need those good people on all sides of the chamber, who understand that what is being done demeans us as a people, to speak up. Our leaders are letting us down. It is no longer good enough to engage in this reckless, lawless activity that is in breach of our own domestic law and in breach of international law. I have some advice for my colleagues in the Australian Labor Party, who are now contemplating the notion of supporting the turn-back policy. At some point, you have to come to the realisation that you cannot continue following the government down this path—down these depths—because they know no boundaries when it comes to the rule of law, when it comes to respecting international norms and when it comes to showing decency, compassion and humanity. They are simply not capable of it, and you must take a stand. You must join with us in taking a stand to end what has been a demeaning, destructive and, in many ways, completely futile debate. What we need here is some global leadership. We need the Australian government to play its part as a responsible global citizen and know that, regardless of what we do, the problem will continue and we need to ensure that we play a constructive role in the solution.

Question agreed to.