Nick McKim (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In respect of the Department of Immigration and Border Protection annual report for 2016-17, I move:

That the Senate take note of the document.

In the last fortnight I've been twice to Manus Island, and I've seen the results over there of the bipartisan cruelty that is Australia's offshore detention regime. I've witnessed the effects on hundreds of our fellow human beings of years of illegal detention and torture on Manus Island and of people being deprived of their drinking water, their food, their medication, and electricity. I've spoken to hundreds of these guys. I've looked at their battered faces, their exhausted bodies and their tired spirits. But I say to both sides of this chamber, the Liberal-National side and the Labor Party side, that, despite all that you have collectively put these people through, they have maintained their pride and their dignity. They are a shining example to all of us in this place.

When Papua New Guinea police went into that centre a few days ago and overturned the precious rainwater that the men had captured and stored in rubbish bins, they stood in silence, peacefully, and did not retaliate. These men have suffered a five-year jail term that was imposed on them by the Labor and LNP parties in this place. Today, Papua New Guinean officials went into that centre and drilled holes in the rubbish bins so that the men could not even store that precious drinking water that falls from the sky and is their lifeblood, and again they stood peacefully by.

What is happening on Manus Island is sickening and disgusting. It is a dark, foul and bloody stain on our national conscience. Respected international agencies have described it as torture because that's exactly what it is. The reason that the government has been allowed to get away with this is the silent complicity of the Labor Party— (Time expired)

Glenn Sterle (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator McKim, do you wish to seek to continue your remarks?

Nick McKim (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I seek leave to continue my remarks later.

Leave granted; debate adjourned.

Glenn Sterle (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I inform senators that any of the reports up to and including No. 151, where senators have not sought leave to continue remarks, will be discharged from the Notice Paper, and committee reports on pages 10 and 11 will be listed for consideration in tomorrow's Notice Paper.