Concetta Fierravanti-Wells (NSW, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Immigration and Shadow Parliamentary Secretary Assisting the Leader in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

I withdraw that. What the Prime Minister and his immigration minister have done is make that product much more attractive. The Sri Lankan ambassador was interviewed on Lateline on 11 November, and it is important to go back and look at that interview because he really put a lot of things into perspective. First of all, he told us that many of these people never started the journey from Sri Lanka; they came from elsewhere. He said:

… this talk about the push factor is an over-exaggeration

This, I might remind you, is the Sri Lankans’ representative to the United Nations. He told us:

In the absence of a push factor it’s the magnetic attraction of Australia that has brought these people to Australia’s shores illegally.

I think this is emotional blackmail, people going and sitting on leaking vessels and then refusing to get off those vessels. In the first instance there is a legal manner in which people could migrate to Australia. This avenue was not used. Instead they used an illicit method and now they are exerting pressure on the Australian authorities to accommodate them. I think it is wrong. He also went on to say:

Personally I do not think they are refugees, unless you use that expression in a rather loose manner, they are economic refugees looking for greener pastures elsewhere.

In another part of the interview he said—and this is really the crux of it:

As long as the pull factor is brought to an end or satisfactorily controlled. I think this exodus will cease almost immediately. At the moment, we see a large number of people who are making use of the opportunity, exploiting the opportunity to go to countries like Australia and Canada.

This will cease immediately the pull factor that is there at the moment is brought to an end.

That is the Sri Lankan representative to the United Nations and I think you cannot get a simpler situation than that statement by him. It is time that this government realised the effect that its cumulative changes have made to weaken our immigration and border security framework.