Chris Bowen (McMahon, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Immigration and Citizenship) Share this | Hansard source

The member for Cook says, 'Be careful.' The member for Cook might disagree with me, but I think he is a good man. He said, 'I don't think the parliament would support the Nauru solution for many reasons.' He also said this:

Temporary protection visas didn't work before and I don't believe they'll work again. We will only end up with a whole other people that are held here with no future.

That is what your own backbench things about your policy—the member for McMillan belling the cat and saying what he thinks about your policy.

What we have is a situation where this government has entered into an agreement with Malaysia under our regional framework negotiated in Bali—something the previous government could never have achieved—in consultation with the UNHCR, which ensur­es that people transferred from Australia to Malaysia will be treated with dignity and respect. I have said this before and let me make it clear again to the House and the member for Cook: people transferred from Australia to Malaysia will not be illegal immigrants. There is a regime in place for Malaysia which deals with illegal immigrants, and it is fair to say it is a hard regime. But people transferred from Australia to Malaysia are not illegal immigrants; they are people transferred with the agreement of the Malaysian government.

The honourable member for Cook can visit detention centres, but these people will not be held in detention centres. He can make all the allegations he likes. They will not be caned. They will be treated with dignity and respect, and they will have protections in place. What we are doing is pulling the rug out from under the people smugglers' business model because—and I agree with the member for Cook and I think he agrees with me—people smugglers should not make the decision about who comes to this country. People who come to this country for resettlement should not have to risk their lives on a dangerous boat journey to come to Australia. If I am obsessed about anything, it is breaking the people smugglers' business model to ensure that we do not have people risking their lives on people-smugglers' boats. It is about time the shadow minister for immigration had the same obsession. (Time expired)

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