David Fawcett (SA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to Senator Johnston, the Minister for Defence. Does the minister support calls for an independent, external investigation into the claims that asylum seekers were deliberately burnt by Navy personnel?

David Johnston (WA, Liberal Party, Minister for Defence) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the senator for his ongoing interest in this area. The answer very simply is: of course I do not.

Doug Cameron (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Human Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

How's the anger management going?

Government senators interjecting—

John Hogg (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order on my left! There are people on both sides debating this issue across the chamber. The minister has the call.

David Johnston (WA, Liberal Party, Minister for Defence) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The answer to the honourable senator's question is: of course I do not. For the last four years, officers—men and women of Customs and the Australian Navy—have saved thousands of lives in the waters between Australia and Indonesia, particularly those between Christmas Island and the island of Java. At one time, nine Navy personnel—I should say Defence personnel, because some of them were Air Force people—were actually blown into the water. This happened when, as the coroner observed, one of the ship's company—one of the legal entrants—blew up the boat deliberately. I should say that most of those people were, in spite of the coroner's recommendation, given citizenship in this country.

ADF personnel have been—I reiterate—spat on, abused and treated like servants, and they have endured all of that to save thousands of lives on the water, particularly between Christmas Island and Java. They have had to endure the horror of many, many bodies being fished out of the water by themselves following the peril of many of these legal entrants. That task has been a shocking task caused by probably the historically greatest policy failure this country has ever seen.

Whom do you side with in the face of such allegations? I will side with the courage, the honesty and the integrity of the Royal Australian Navy at every turn of every corner. But there are some over there who will not side with them. (Time expired)

David Fawcett (SA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask a supplementary question. Minister, the Labor frontbencher Mr Thistlethwaite has said that the claims of torture by a Sudanese asylum seeker should be independently investigated. Do you support Mr Thistlethwaite's call for an independent investigation?

David Johnston (WA, Liberal Party, Minister for Defence) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Of course I do not support such a request for an inquiry. These allegations, made by someone who is currently in Indonesia, are the epitome of hearsay. They are made by someone who has wasted his money and lost his opportunity to surreptitiously enter this country. These are unsubstantiated and scurrilous allegations—hearsay and innuendo—made by someone who is completely disaffected, having lost all of the matters that I have put to you.

The fact that a former senator and Labor member would so quickly take the side of someone seeking to illegally enter our country in the face of the hard and heroic work of Royal Australian Navy personnel sickens me. (Time expired)

David Fawcett (SA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask a further supplementary question. Minister, do you believe that Mr Thistlethwaite's call for an independent investigation into this allegation has been adequately dealt with by the Leader of the Opposition?

Opposition Senators:

Opposition senators interjecting—

John Hogg (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Fawcett, if you wish to rephrase that question I will give you the opportunity.

David Fawcett (SA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, my further supplementary question is: Minister, do you believe that this call for an independent investigation has been adequately dealt with given the role that the Royal Australian Navy plays and the adequacy of its own, internal, investigative processes?

David Johnston (WA, Liberal Party, Minister for Defence) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the honourable senator. I choose to accept the word of the Royal Australian Navy as to the real, factual events that have occurred.

We are on the path to successfully stopping the boats. The Prime Minister, both as Leader of the Opposition and currently, promised to stop the boats. What we are observing is something we have not seen in the Rudd-Gillard-Rudd merry-go-round over six years—a promise by a Prime Minister that is coming true. We have not seen such a thing in six years. Guess what? We are going to see the same sort of mayhem and broken promises if the current Leader of the Opposition comes to power, because he chooses to side with the aspersions cast upon the Royal Australian Navy. That is what the Labor Party is doing.

Senator Conroy interjecting—

Government Senators:

Government senators interjecting—

John Hogg (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! Senator Madigan, you have the call.