Alex Gallacher (SA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answer given by the Minister representing the Minister for Immigration and Border Protection, Senator Cash, to a question without notice asked by Senator Gallacher today on allegations of abuse at the regional processing centre at Nauru.

I want to say at the outset that this is a really serious issue. For Minister Dutton to label the inquiry a witch-hunt before it started, for coalition senators to denigrate the excellent work done by the secretariat and the committee as a whole, is not only disappointing it is also deeply concerning. We are not talking about a to-and-fro issue here, we are not talking about political point-scoring; we are talking about human beings, the way they are being treated, their redress to justice and the law. We know that the tiniest republic in the world, Nauru—a place of only 10,000 people, with a GDP of US$112 million—has had this regional processing centre, negotiated and agreed to by both Labor and the Liberals, placed there. We know that the Chief Magistrate had his visa cancelled and left. We know that the Australian Federal Police officer charged with assisting and training the Nauruan police force had his position terminated.

We know that the Chief Magistrate, the Chief Justice and the Australian Federal Police, who were assisting the tiniest republic in the world to upgrade their justice and legal systems and their police force, have all been thrown out, so to speak. We know that it costs $8,000, which is non-refundable, for a journalist to apply for a visa, but there is no guarantee of getting there. We know that all of these things, collectively and combined, create an atmosphere of no transparency.

The allegations that we heard were not simply publicised; they were sent to the respective people concerned for their response to the adverse comment. If there was evidence that rebutted the allegations, it was published together with the allegations. It was a very careful process that involved almost all of the committee resources of the Senate. Advice was taken from all of the people who normally support this excellent committee system. We produced a report which includes some very serious recommendations. To have those decried or denigrated is deeply concerning to me as the chair of the committee and, I believe, anybody who served on that committee.

More importantly, we are talking about Australia. Australia is the best country in the world. We all know that. But we have to be seen to be doing the right thing. We have to show the world that we are doing the right thing. We cannot do that when we have an area where people cannot go and investigate. We cannot do that when we have allegations that the Nauruan police force lacks the forensic capabilities of adjudicating in a rape case and where there are no child protection laws. We cannot have a minister who is capable of looking the other way when human beings are not being afforded the basic principles of human dignity and the same rights that we would expect any Australian to have. We cannot have a minister looking the other way and saying, 'It's all down to the government of Nauru,' because we know from the evidence that the government of Nauru does not have the wherewithal in their justice, prosecutorial and police systems to do the things that need to be done.

There are allegations of people being raped, and they have not been acted on. There are allegations of child assault, and they have not been acted on. There are allegations of reprehensible behaviour by contractors paid for by Australian taxpayers, and no justice has been seen to be delivered there. We cannot have that. We are Australians. These people are entitled to humane protection under the spend of our taxpayers' dollars.

Take even our simplest recommendation—that when they are spending money in Nauru, they should be subjected to parliamentary scrutiny. That is what they are supposed to do, and they have not followed that. The most basic principles of transparency and probity have not been followed. It is reprehensible! The minister should enact every one of those recommendations. (Time expired)

Concetta Fierravanti-Wells (NSW, Liberal Party, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Social Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise also to take note of answers and, most particularly, to refute some of the comments that Senator Gallacher made in relation to his commentary on Nauru. The inquiry that was established by the opposition and their Green alliance partners was a politically-motivated one. It was done to advance Labor's Left and Green opposition to Operation Sovereign Borders, which has stopped the boats. I know that they do not like that, but the reality is that the boats have been stopped and lives have been saved.

Alex Gallacher (SA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It has nothing to do with that!

Concetta Fierravanti-Wells (NSW, Liberal Party, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Social Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Gallacher, I spent many years as a government lawyer doing my fair share of immigration work. This area is fraught with complexity. But it is also fraught at times with people making allegations. In this instance, it is clear that the inquiry brought forward little more than a series of vague, untested, unsubstantiated claims, lacking in credibility and amounting to little more than hearsay. Embarrassingly, Labor and the Greens could not even agree on a single set of recommendations for their inquiry, so Senator Hanson-Young from the Greens was forced to write an additional report to perpetuate her failed political claims.

Well before this political inquiry began, the government had carried out an independent review by the former head of the Australian Commission for Law Enforcement Integrity, Mr Moss, into allegations of inappropriate behaviour at the Nauru Regional Processing Centre. The Department of Immigration and Border Protection is implementing the review's 19 recommendations. Over and above the Moss recommendations, the government has established a child protection panel to provide independent advice on child protection in detention and has provided additional Australian Federal Police resources to assist the NPF.

It was the former Green-Labor-alliance government that filled the detention centres with men, women and children after 50,000 people arrived illegally on 800 boats over the six years of Labor government. We hear a lot from those opposite, but the reality is that 1,000 people died at sea. We did stop the boats. Yesterday's announcement in relation to the Syrian humanitarian crisis is a direct, positive dividend of having stopped the boats, because we are now able to make the sort of contribution that we are making for people who are genuine refugees under UNHCR processes and assist them to come to Australia.

Going back to the issues raised by Senator Gallacher: there would be no illegal maritime arrivals in detention today if Labor and the Greens had not opened the borders to people smugglers. Let me take you back to the dismantling of these programs. At that time, I was the shadow parliamentary secretary in the immigration area. I remember vividly Senator Evans dismantling 26 separate programs in the border protection area. What do you think that did to the fabric of a previously organised process? It gave free rein to the people smugglers. It is little wonder that they had a very successful business model, but we ended that business model, because we ended the illegal trafficking of people into Australia. We have stopped the boats, we have stopped the deaths at sea and we have restored integrity to our borders.