Richard Marles (Corio, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Immigration and Border Protection) Share this | Hansard source

I second the motion. Last Tuesday we had a remarkable allegation surface: that Australian officials had paid people smugglers to take people back to Indonesia. In this area of policy, there are often some pretty amazing claims that are made out there. We tend to take them with a grain of salt, and the idea that our government would be paying people smugglers to take people back to Indonesia certainly ranked amongst those proposals which would seem to be utterly outlandish. So, not surprisingly, when the question is put to the immigration minister, he answers, 'No, never happened—nothing to see here,' and when the proposition is put to the foreign minister she reiterates it: 'No, it never happened—nothing to see here.' I have to say that personally I heard what they said and I thought, 'Well, that's obviously got to be right, because which Australian government would pay people smugglers who turn up next to an Australian Navy Vessel to take people back to Indonesia?'

But then we see an absolutely astounding interview conducted by the Prime Minister with Neil Mitchell on Friday where, when these allegations were put to the Prime Minister, rather than repeating the flat denial, what we hear is obfuscation. What we hear is an attempt to avoid the question and then this fantastic line which sums up everything that this government is about: 'By hook or by crook, we will do what we intend to do—by hook or by crook.' This is the government of the cheap fix. This is the government that goes down the quickest avenue it can. This is the government that does not have enduring solutions. Why on earth would he make a comment like that? We obviously expected that later that day he would clean up those comments, he would do his press conference and he would assure the Australian people: 'No, it ain't so. There is no way that an Australian government would have paid people smugglers to take people back to Indonesia.' But instead he confirms it all.

So where does that leave us? That leaves us with the Prime Minister inviting the Australian people to absolutely accept the proposition that that is exactly what happened—that the Australian government has paid wads of cash to people smugglers who turn up next to an Australian Navy vessel. Parties of both sides have been working over the last few years to do everything we can to—

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