MPI Speech on Asylum Seekers in response to the Opposition.
Date: 26 October 2009
I rise to refute Senator Parry's assertions in this MPI this afternoon. I would contend that that is simply an opposition grasping at straws and at some sort of issue in order to become politically relevant in Australia at this point in time. We do need to go back in history, and we particularly need to go back to the last 11 years under the previous federal government, the Howard government, and the way in which this country needed to hang its head in shame at the way in which it treated people seeking to become refugees and seeking asylum in this country. We very proudly sign up to United Nations conventions and we very proudly sign up to protocols, and two of those are to do with the rights of people seeking refugee status when they come to this country. What we do not sign up to, and what we do not accept, is the fact that these people are so desperate that they put their lives in the hands of people who smuggle them to this country on boats and that they risk life and limb to get here.
Since coming to government we have changed the immigration and refugee policy in this country in some respects-those respects where we believe it was inhumane and unfair to people seeking refugee status. As Senator Evans said just last week at estimates:
"What we said before the election was that we would retain the excision of offshore islands; we have. What we said before the election was that we would maintain mandatory detention; we have. We said we would maintain offshore processing on Christmas Island; we have. We also said we would treat asylum seekers in this country more humanely, and we have."
So we are very proud of the fact that we have, to a large degree, kept the same thrust in policy issues as previous governments. We do now process refugees on an offshore processing centre. We have maintained mandatory detention-but, of course, it is more humane and fairer-and we retain the excision of offshore islands. But what the people opposite me want to do today is have the general public believe that with our change in policies-our more humane treatment of people seeking refugee status in this country-we are somehow, out of the whole world, an isolated island when it comes to people movement and people trafficking.
That is certainly not the case. I want to go through some of those figures in a minute. The opposition really try to hang their hat on the fact that we have abolished temporary protection visas. They really want to back us into a corner and have us say, 'All right, perhaps we should reinstate the policies of the Howard government and have temporary protection visas.' I say this in the context of not ever hearing Senator Fierravanti-Wells or Senator Parry in the Senate or Dr Sharman Stone in the House of Representatives iterate what their policy would be at this time. Nobody standing opposite me this afternoon is going to stand up and say, 'We blame the Rudd Labor government for what is happening now.' That will be their line. They will not be able to put an alternative policy before this chamber this afternoon because they do not have one. They cannot even tell us if their policy is to reinvent and reintroduce TPVs.
We announced as part of our 2008-09 budget that we would abolish TPVs-the regime for asylum seekers. As I said, the opposition consistently refuse to confirm whether they will reintroduce TPVs. They claim that the abolition of TPVs has caused these boat arrivals. They say it is one chip in our policy change that is causing this influx of people. They are wrong, of course, because TPVs did not stop the boats arriving. In the four years from December 1997 to November 2001 there were a total of 12,651 unauthorised boat arrivals. So the introduction of the TPV regime in late 1999 did not stop the boats. By October 2000, the rate of UBAs-unauthorised boat arrivals-was clearly trending upwards. There was no correlation between the introduction of TPVs and diminished boat arrivals. In fact, under the Howard regime they increased. From December 1998 to November 1999 there were 3,042 boat arrivals, from December 1999 to November 2000 there were 2,921 boat arrivals and between December 2000 and November 2001 there were 6,540 boat arrivals.
People granted TPVs did not leave Australia either. This is another myth that the opposition want to perpetuate and have you believe. By the time the TPVs were abolished last year, nearly 90 per cent of people initially granted a TPV had been granted a permanent protection visa or another visa to remain in Australia; 11,206 people were granted TPVs and, of these, 9,841 were granted a permanent protection visa. They were genuine refugees and they have stayed in this country. Even the previous government had realised that TPVs were failing and on over 300 occasions they either allowed TPV holders to apply early for a permanent protection visa or lifted the bar on applying for a PPV.
The issue is really, no matter what rhetoric you hear from the other side, that the introduction of the TPVs actually saw a spike in the number of people arriving by boat in this country and seeking refugee status. We never talk about the number of people who have overstayed their visa as a result of World Youth Day last year. We do not hear the opposition talking about the number of people who arrive here by plane on some other form of visa-a business migration visa or tourist visa-and overstaying and seeking to stay here by other means. This is because the politics, rhetoric and headlines are about boat people. The opposition still have not let go of the campaign they ran in 2001 capitalising on the misery and suffering of people trying to seek refugee status in this country.
Let me talk about the global pressures pushing asylum seekers and the increase in their numbers right around the world. We are not alone in having to deal with this issue. We are not an isolated country having to deal with this problem. According to the UNHCR, there are 42 million people worldwide-almost double the population of this country-that are forcibly displaced. Up until the end of 2008, that included 15.2 million refugees. There are hundreds, thousands and millions of people out there in the world who are fleeing from their home countries for a whole range of reasons, mainly because they fear for their lives, and are seeking refuge in a country that will accept them as refugees under the United Nations conventions we have signed. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has reported that the number of asylum seekers in industrialised countries increased by 12 per cent last year. The increases in unauthorised boat arrivals and the increases in applications for asylum in Australia are far lower than any other industrialised country. Yes, we have people seeking to come here, unfortunately by boat, because they are so desperate, frightened and anxious to run away from the horrible and rabid conditions they leave behind in their country, but we are not alone in the world.
We are experiencing a far lower increase than anywhere else. For example, last year 15,300 people tried to enter Greece and 36,000 people tried to enter Italy. The figures for 2007 to 2008 show that in Italy there was a 122 per cent increase, in Canada a 30 per cent increase, in France a 20 per cent increase, in The Netherlands an 89 per cent increase, in Switzerland a 53 per cent increase and in Australia a 19 per cent increase. We are seeing an increase in the number of people seeking to arrive here by boat, but the number of people seeking refugee status around the rest of the world, particularly in the European countries, has dramatically increased. They get there by truck. They are getting there in the back of lorries. They are getting there in boats. We are lucky that the only way you can get here is by sea. We do not share borders with other countries. However, people need to realise that there is a massive movement worldwide and we are part of that worldwide movement of people seeking to flee the countries in which they are feeling oppressed.
Our stance is that we are humane. We have said, and the Prime Minister and Senator Evans have said, that the government has ended arbitrary and indefinite detention for children, and no children are now behind razor wire fences, as we saw under the Howard government. Our processes are compatible now with those of the UNHCR. We know that the UNHCR was incredibly critical of the former government's treatment of asylum seekers. We have ended the temporary protection visa regime and the Pacific solution.
As Chair of the Senate Standing Committee on Legal and Constitutional and Affairs, and as deputy chair of that committee for many years, I have sat at estimates and heard how dysfunctional the department was, how inhumane the policies of the previous government were and what an absolute waste of money the Pacific solution was. Hundreds of thousands of dollars were thrown away each year on the Pacific solution but, at the end of the day, all of those people were taken into the country as refugees anyway. There was a definite need for us, as a new government, to make a dramatic U-turn when it came to changing our policy on immigration and the treatment of refugees.
But what we will not tolerate is people capitalising on these people and smuggling them here by boat. We have retained the excision of offshore islands and we have maintained mandatory detention and processing on Christmas island for unauthorised arrivals. Our clear message to people thinking of entering Australia by boat and seeking refugee status is: no matter how you get here, if you are not a genuine refugee you will be sent home-and quickly. We have invested a record amount on surveillance and interception. In the budget, we announced an additional $654 million to combat people smuggling.
We have also set aside $44 million to tackle the problem at its core. The previous government shied away from a dialogue with Indonesia, did not actually have any cooperative arrangement with Indonesia, did not work with Indonesia and did not have the confidence of Indonesia to look at it as a partnership. But we have done that. Our Prime Minister flew to Indonesia and had direct talks with the President of Indonesia on a one-on-one basis. We have the confidence of Indonesia. We are going to work at the source. We want to tackle the criminals, the people smugglers, who take money and commit crimes at the expense of the misery of others. We have enhanced Indonesia's border movement alert system. We have enhanced the capacity of countries in South-East Asia to collect and share information on people smuggling and to cooperate in addressing irregular migration.
We have expanded the transnational crime unit network, which means we are putting additional AFP liaison officers in key strategic locations. Since December 2008 there have been 82 disruptions by Indonesian national police of planned smuggling ventures to Australia involving about 1,494 persons. Since December 2008 the AFP have charged 48 people with people smuggling under the Migration Act 1958. This relates to 26 irregular maritime arrivals involving 44 alleged crew members and four alleged Australian based organisers. What we are trying to do is tackle the problem at its source. It has nothing to do with the change in our policies, despite the rhetoric we hear from the other side. As I said, the introduction of TPVs actually saw a spike in the number of boat people arriving in this country. It is the case at the moment that we are part of global pressures, and what we are trying to do is tackle this at its source.
The opposition is grappling with policies. The Joint Standing Committee on Migration handed down a report this year which was unanimously endorsed by the opposition. In fact, the key recommendations were all signed off, even by Dr Sharman Stone. The opposition has consistently refused to confirm that they will reintroduce temporary protection visas. My challenge to the people on the other side who continue to speak in this debate is this: stand up and, in your first couple of sentences, tell us what you would do, tell us what your policy would be- (Time expired)