Sarah Hanson-Young (SA, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to Senator Brandis, the Minister representing the Prime Minister. Two people have set themselves on fire in Nauru in less than a week. One is dead and the other remains in a seriously critical condition. Are these two people, along with the others who have died in Australia's care, considered simply collateral damage for the government's politically motivated campaign to stop the boats?

George Brandis (Queensland, Liberal Party, Attorney-General) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am bound to say that is an extraordinarily insensitive question. You are talking about a man who has self-immolated and died, whose family is in grief. You are talking about a woman who on the last report I had, a few minutes before question time, is in a critical condition in a Brisbane hospital. These are terrible events, and every person in this chamber should be saddened by them.

But what we do not want to do and what we are determined not to do is to go back to a situation that existed prior to the election of this government when the number of deaths or serious injuries were not numbered in ones and twos but were numbered in thousands. We know that on the most conservative estimate more than 1,200 people perished at sea as a result of policies that you applauded. Since this government implemented its policies to which the Labor Party belatedly has also subscribed, not a single man, woman or child has died at sea. And we make absolutely no excuse for having a policy to stop the boats, because, if you stop the boats, you stop the drownings. You stop the drownings and you stop the deaths.

We believe that driving people smugglers out of business by destroying their capacity to sell a product to gullible and vulnerable people is absolutely a valid public policy objective and an important objective, and the Australian people are right with us.

Sarah Hanson-Young (SA, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask a supplementary question. Is the government aware that it is not simply a choice between dangerous boat journeys and people setting themselves on fire? Does the government understand that there is indeed a better way, a more humane way—one that values human life, one that values Australian values of fairness and courage and one that would bring people here to Australia safely for protection as we should?

George Brandis (Queensland, Liberal Party, Attorney-General) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

And as we do by running the most generous refugee and resettlement program per capita of any nation in the world. Whenever you address yourself to the question of border protection, I wonder why it is that you never acknowledge the great generosity of the Australian people in running the most generous refugee and resettlement program per capita in the world. If genuine refugees seek to come to Australia, they are more likely to be successful in being taken into an Australian refugee and resettlement program than that of any other nation in the world. But we do insist—and we think it is reasonable—that they come through the front door, not put themselves into the hands of people smugglers.

Sarah Hanson-Young (SA, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask a further supplementary question. Today the Minister for Immigration and Border Protection was out victim-blaming, saying that those on Nauru do not deserve hope for a better life. Does the Prime Minister agree that the young woman who is currently lying in a hospital after setting herself on fire did not deserve a better life and did not deserve hope of a better future?

George Brandis (Queensland, Liberal Party, Attorney-General) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Hanson-Young, once again I am appalled that you would be so insensitive as to make a political statement about a woman who is critically ill in a Brisbane hospital as we speak. That is a shocking thing for you to say, Senator Hanson-Young, and I am ashamed of you.

I have learned through long experience not to take at face value words that are attributed to other political colleagues and political opponents. I have not seen Mr Dutton's statement, but I know that Mr Dutton takes a deep, deep personal and humane interest in everything that happens in his portfolio, and it is because Mr Dutton, like Mr Morrison before him, is so concerned about human life that he presides over a policy that has saved countless hundreds, if not thousands, of lives in the last 2½ years.