Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Immigration and Citizenship) Share this | Hansard source

I am not going to cast aspersions on other members of this House. This is an incredibly complex and difficult issue and we all have to make choices about how we think we are going to address it. So I would not for a second seek to question the motives or morals of anybody in this place in how they seek to approach this very difficult issue. But I would also note that no-one would be happier than I if we could stop the boats. This is something I have campaigned for in this portfolio now for some years. It is not a slogan for the coalition; it was our record in government. For more than two years we have argued with this government that its policies are the reason we have seen this unprecedented rate of illegal boat arrivals to Australia. I now notice that the government finally agrees with us and has sought to change its policy because it knows it is the policies that are at fault in causing the chaos that we now see. But this government does not understand that when you implement policy in this area you must think it through.

This five for one people swap deal with Malaysia is a proposal conceived in denial and negotiated in desperation. Five for one speaks for itself. It was rushed out prior to the budget before it was finalised. Confusion still reigns over when it starts, who goes there and who does not. Confusion still reigns about who will decide who goes to Malaysia and the circumstances in which they go. The Prime Minister claims she is making the decision, but the Malaysian government says the opposite. It is quite clear that the Malaysian government will have a right of veto over who goes to their country under this arrangement, and the Prime Minister should be honest with the people about that. Confusion reigns about whether the 21 children and eight women who have arrived since 7 May will be sent to Malaysia. The Prime Minister should answer the question of whether she is going to send those women and children to Malaysia. Confusion continues to reign about the level of support and funding, almost $70 million of which will be paid to international agencies. We do not know what that will pay will for. Will it feed people? Will it send their kids to school and give them health care? If it does any of those things, for how long will it do those things—the entire time they are there or just a little while? We do not have answers to any of the detail because this policy sits in a twilight zone of confusion which is characterised by the way the government deals with this issue and constantly fails to think things through.

Irregular maritime arrivals will be held on Christmas Island indefinitely because this agreement has not yet been concluded and the government has no other agreement with any other country anywhere in the world to send people. As a result, those who are arriving at Christmas Island are being held in indefinite detention in strict contradiction of the government's own stated and legislated detention values.

The government has also failed to address our international obligations here, which others have noted. It is not enough just to get a commitment from Asia not to refoule, as is required under the UN convention on refugees. I understand that the government needs to get that requirement and I accept that they have received that undertaking from the Malaysia government. But what they have not got is an undertaking when it comes to the United Nations convention against torture. The Prime Minister's statement says that those sent to Malaysia will not receive preferential treatment to those who are already in Malaysia awaiting assessment of their asylum claims.

There are laws in Malaysia—actual laws—permitting fines, imprisonment and whipping of people who illegally reside in Malaysia. That is the law in Malaysia. Unless this government has an absolutely rock-solid guarantee that these laws will not apply to people sent to Malaysia then clearly they can give no guarantee about the human rights and welfare of those sent. In fact, the complementary protection law, which was introduced into and passed this House last week and is now before the Senate, may even provide an opportunity for those who are coming by boat to seek asylum from the government's own transfer laws under its own new asylum laws that it introduced into this parliament. As a result, we will see this thing potentially being wholly unwound by the government's failure to think it through. Then there is the commitment that is required in terms of the act itself, which says that human rights need to be protected and that people also are provided protection while they await asylum claims in Malaysia. That is the requirement of our Migration Act, and I learnt in estimates that the government is seeking to work its way around that requirement in the Migration Act in order to send people to Malaysia without giving that undertaking. This deal just simply does not stack up at the end of the day, and the government has options in Nauru. They only have to pick up the phone. (Time expired)

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