Steph Hodgins-May (Victoria, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Today marks 58 days of the refugee led encampment outside the Department of Home Affairs in Melbourne, and it marks more than 12 years of lives lived in limbo for thousands of people. Last Friday, I spoke at the refugee led, 24/7 encampment. I addressed the families and children who have braved freezing weather, who have braved neo-Nazis and who have braved 12 years of uncertainty through no fault of their own. I shared in their grief about lives cut short and lives damaged.

Right now, more than 8½ thousand people who came here for safety over a decade ago are being denied a clear pathway to permanence that they need to rebuild their lives. They live in fear of being taken from the towns and suburbs that they call home. These are people in our communities, people that our kids go to school with, people that we work with, people that we volunteer with.

One of those people is Abbas, who shared his harrowing story with me when he came to Canberra to speak to politicians on behalf of the thousands of people living in limbo. I want to share Abbas's story with you:

We came by sea and didn't know if we would survive the journey but took the chance to seek a safer life. For the first few years we were moved through detention centres until we settled in Melbourne.

It felt like we had finally found home. But in late 2018, everything changed. Our protection claims were rejected. Then in 2020 while we were waiting for our appeal, Covid hit and things got worse.

We couldn't get Medicare. We couldn't work or get any Government assistance, and we struggled to pay rent.

My Dad also got really sick. He was mentally struggling. Eventually he made the decision to go back to Iran. It wasn't an easy decision.

My Dad was taken into custody by Iranian authorities. They beat him and let him cut and bruised. He has now been missing for one year.

I can only fear the worst for what has happened to my Dad. And know that if I am forced to go back to Iran this is what I will be facing.

I don't understand why the Australian Government has punished my family in this way. All we wanted was to be safe, be together and to rebuild our lives.

That is why I'm joining others to peacefully protest. It is our hope that the minister for immigration will stand up for better treatment of refugees and people seeking asylum. I want to thank Abbas for his leadership and acknowledge the shameful experience that he and thousands of other people are facing.

They went through a visa process that the government abolished because they determined that it was unfair, but now Labor is saying that those people who had their claims refused have no serious way to challenge them, despite them determining that that system was flawed. Ministerial intervention is inefficient and often takes many, many years. To date, only a small number of people have had success with ministerial intervention. What is needed is a credible pathway to permanent protection, and that is exactly what the Greens will continue to fight for. To the protesters camped outside in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth: we see you, we hear you and we will not stop fighting until there is a pathway to permanency for you and your families.

The majority of Australians want to see a ban on harmful and destructive gambling advertising that is plaguing televisions, and this was confirmed in yet another poll today. Instead of adopting the recommendations from its own inquiry led by Peta Murphy, which called for gambling ads to be banned across all media and at all times, Labor continues to delay a decision.

In my neighbourhood of Macnamara, community members are telling me that they're sick of being bombarded by gambling ads. Whether they're at the footy oval at the weekend, at the skate rink or in their own living rooms, they are sick of listening to their kids reeling off the betting odds instead of the footy scores, they're sick of the constant inducements normalising the insidious gambling industry and they're terrified about their kids joining the growing statistic of problem gamblers in this country. Today I call on the member for Macnamara, where I live, to listen to the needs of our community and to publicly call for a complete gambling ad ban right now. It's time.