Janet Rice (Victoria, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Today is a dark day for the Senate, with the repeal of the medevac bill. On the basis of a secret deal between the government and Senator Lambie, the government has dismantled the only shred of humanity that our offshore detention system had. It was the only objective, independent insight into the system. Be in no doubt: it was a system and it is a system that is designed for secrecy. It is designed to keep people out of sight. It is designed to keep people's suffering out of sight and out of mind—out of the spotlight of scrutiny.

The medevac legislation meant that decisions on people's health and, potentially, their lives, were being made by doctors. We know that there are sick people on Manus Island and Nauru—people who have been kept in indefinite detention for over seven years. Anybody who has read Behrouz Boochani's award-winning book, No Friend But the Mountains, understands the desperation felt by people locked up indefinitely—locked up without hope.

We have all heard the stories of people paralysed by lack of hope, lack of meaning, lack of anything to look forward to, continuing nothingness—people who withdraw, people who stop eating and drinking, people who lie paralysed on their beds day after day after day. I feel so much for those people today, people who have not committed a crime, people who have been tortured by our government—yes, tortured. The United Nations tells us that indefinite detention is torture. Medevac gave these people hope that, as sick people, they would get the medical care they needed, the medical care they deserved, the medical care that we as Australians have an obligation to give them. I'm thinking of the hundreds of refugees on Manus and Nauru who this morning have had that hope ripped away from them. I know they will be feeling desperate. I want them to know that we will be there for them. The community is there for them. Certainly the Australian Greens are there for them. The majority of the Australian community is there for them. We will keep fighting for their safety. We will keep fighting to close the camps and to bring them here to rebuild their lives.

I haven't had the privilege of meeting those people who our government have locked up on Manus and Nauru, but I have had the privilege of getting to know many people who have arrived in Australia as refugees or as people seeking asylum. I've got a motion in the Senate this afternoon about two of them who are currently languishing jailed, denied their freedom, in the Villawood detention centre. Let's call it what it is—the Villawood jail. They are jailed purely for doing what is their right—to seek asylum if their lives are in danger. My motion this afternoon is about two journalists from Saudi Arabia who are being held there. They are two journalists who have made significant contributions, working with international publications, and their work has been praised by colleagues and international journalists. To say it's not easy being a journalist in Saudi Arabia is an understatement. The case of Jamal Khashoggi is sobering. A UN investigation concluded that his death constituted an extrajudicial killing for which the state of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is responsible. That's what can happen to journalists in Saudi Arabia.

The two men I've been in contact with are not only journalists; they're also gay. They were living in their home country, where homosexuality is punishable by death. It has been reported that they were outed by their own government in retaliation for liaising with the international media. They feared persecution, torture and death. So they did what was their right under international law—they fled Saudi Arabia and came to Australia to find safety. But instead of being welcomed with open arms and shown what a welcoming, caring country we could be, they were immediately detained. They told The Guardian Australia: 'We ran away from being detained arbitrarily in jail for no reason, only to arrive in Australia and find ourselves here in jail. We've been threatened with it in Saudi, but it never actually happened until we came here.' That's the Australia we're living in today. Through communicating with these men, I've seen photos of the results of the violent attacks LGBTIQ+ people face in detention centres in Australia. It's an incredibly dangerous place for LGBTIQ people seeking asylum. I understand these two journalists have been threatened with violence in detention and they live in fear for their safety.

I am here today for them and for all people seeking asylum in Australia. Australia can and must do better. We cannot continue along a path that involves locking up people unjustly. I urge my fellow senators in this place, and all Australians, to look at these issues for what they are—matters of life and death. Twelve people have died in detention on Nauru and Manus so far, and today's repeal of medevac makes it more likely that more will die. People's fates are now once again in the hands of an uncaring, untrustworthy government, in the hands of Minister Dutton—people who justify their cruel regime on the flawed and useless theory of deterrence and use that to mercilessly shred people's human rights, their right to safety, their right to asylum.

Those of us who have lost a loved one suddenly or randomly in circumstances that are random and seemingly unfair know how gut-wrenching this is, know the grief that those who are left behind are left with, know how their lives feel being ripped apart. And this is what our government and Senator Lambie are heartlessly imposing on innocent people who have already suffered so much. The Greens believe that our society can be so much better. We believe that seeking asylum is a human right and that people who enter Australian territory to seek asylum do so lawfully. We believe that Australia must uphold its humanitarian and legal obligations to people seeking asylum and refugee, to grant refugees protection and to reunite families as is required by international human rights law and the 1951 Refugee Convention and its protocol. We believe that people should be treated with dignity—surely that is not too much to ask?—and that we, as Australians, should be proud of the contribution we make to our community and the world. We should not hide behind our borders attacking those who come to us seeking asylum. We are here today for a fair Australia, one that supports our neighbours and the world, an Australia that we can be proud of.