John Murphy (Reid, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I hear the member interjecting but, sadly, conservatives in this country have used asylum seekers. The member for Cook talked about 'embellishing rhetoric' and the 'demonising' of asylum seekers, but those opposite have made a whole career of this, both in government and in opposition. There is no degree of sincerity about resolving this problem at all, as we have just seen over the last few days with the visit of the Leader of the Opposition to Nauru. You cannot tell the people of Australia that there was not a done deal before Mr Abbott left our shores to go to Nauru—as if he had to go to Nauru when his spokesperson, who had previously been there, would have been able to report to him everything about Nauru! But, no, he just wanted to exploit this very divisive issue in the Australian community and play the dark politics of asylum seekers. It is a very sad time for Australia when the opposition continues to behave in this manner.

We are sending a clear message that if you have a genuine claim for asylum, you are not better off paying a criminal who is attempting to profit from your misfortune and risking your life to try to make it to Australia on an unseaworthy vessel. This will only lead to asylum seekers being removed from Australia and their claims for asylum being placed at the end of the queue. The clear message is not to get on the boat. That is what we are saying with our policy.

I hear the concerns of members of the public that the proposed deal with Malaysia might not protect those who are sent here, but I believe the minister for immigration when he guarantees that the final agreement between Australia and Malaysia will address human rights concerns. Let us be honest—our government has a much better track record on treatment of vulnerable asylum seekers. I have referred to the disgraceful children overboard episode under the Howard government and how they traded on the politics of that. I believe that the Leader of the Opposition is continuing to mislead the Australian people, and that was never more evident than in the stunt of his visit to Nauru over the weekend. I understand the Leader of the Opposition claims that the processing centre established in Nauru by the former Howard government could be quickly reopened at little cost. I note that the Leader of the Opposition and previous speakers have given no indication of the cost of reopening Nauru.

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