Laurie Ferguson (Werriwa, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

The UNHCR regional representative. He also noted:

All refugees in Malaysia would ... be registered within the government's immigration database and thus protected from arbitrary arrest and detention.

They are pretty positive comments about a Commonwealth country, which the opposition has started to basically say is on the same level as North Korea. That is the kind of argument that is being put here, just to make sure that the government cannot have an effective policy in this area. They want to jump off the buildings, joyous at every boat that arrives, saying that the government has failed, saying it is out of control, putting out negative comments about the people involved.

I would also note about TPVs, towing boats away and Nauru as the supposed sublime solution that, as was noted earlier, 8,000 people came after the TPV provisions came in. I would question TPVs, quite frankly, on moral grounds as well. I believe that people who come here by boat and plane have advantages in getting into this country as opposed to people in the camps and the slums in Quetta and around Kenya. But once it has been decided that they are refugees, is it morally right that they are on TPVs and waiting for years to be reunited with their families? These are people we have determined are refugees. We might dispute that others are; we might have doubts about others. But the opposition are saying that this is a defensible policy as a discouragement, and yet 8,000 people came here afterwards anyway because they were so desperate.

We have heard from the Navy and various people about the dangers of towing these boats away. We know now that the opposition have put in the condition 'wherever possible'. It is not just a phone call to the Leader of the Opposition now; it is a bit more complex—it is only wherever it is judged possible. Also, the so-called central requirement that a country is a UNHCR signatory is abandoned: the boats will be towed back to Indonesia. These are the kinds of inconsistencies we are seeing from those opposite.

They are trying to mislead the public that these boats mean that Malaysia cannot be a solution. We all know that in the months leading up to the High Court's late August decision there was debate about the legality of it and there was uncertainty. I think the people smugglers would have had a reasonable proposition in putting to people that this might not hold. The opposition talk about the increase in boats coming here, but we know that even after they announced the glorious suggestion of Nauru, 2,000 people still came here.

They talk about 'one sensible amendment'. The one sensible amendment is that we totally capitulate to a policy that their deputy leader a year ago said was not necessary. They come in here and deride the changes that this government has introduced. They say that what is happening has got nothing to do with the conclusion of the war in Sri Lanka; nothing to do with the possibility of US forces getting out of Iraq; nothing to do with concrete conditions inside countries. But anyone that follows this issue knows that that is an ingredient. It is totally preposterous to say we should capitulate to their situation.

Finally, I what to turn to the Greens. Every time there is a debate in this area we see their solution: an increased intake per se. I am not opposed to increases, but to say that increasing this country's intake—an admittedly high intake per capita, but very minor in terms of the overall international problem—can somehow solve this problem is preposterous. We are talking about 10½ million people internationally, as of earlier this year. We are talking about 1.9 million people in Pakistan; 1.1 million people in Iran; and 5½ million in Asia, more than half of them in our region. To say, every time there is a debate about the need to bring in disincentives for people to undertake perilous journeys, that somehow the boats are not going to come if we increase the intake is absolutely preposterous.

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