Malcolm Turnbull (Wentworth, Liberal Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. I refer him to his so-called Indonesian solution. Will the Prime Minister inform the House whether the Indonesian government or Indonesian officials have advised the Australian government or our officials that in their view his changes to Australia’s border protection policies have encouraged the current surge in people smugglers’ attempts to bring asylum seekers to Australia?

Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am unaware of any such advice and can say to the Leader of the Opposition that President Yudhoyono has made no such comment to me at all. I will also say to the Leader of the Opposition what the President of Indonesia has said to me: that we all face a common people smuggling challenge. That is what the President of Indonesia has said. He is reflecting the mainstream view in Indonesia, in Malaysia and in various other regional countries, all of whom are cooperating through the Bali process. The Foreign Minister is actively engaged with his counterparts from across the region. That is the right and responsible approach; it is the right and responsible analysis.

The Leader of the Opposition, if he was actually engaged in the facts of this matter as opposed to the politics of what he is seeking to prosecute, would understand three core points. One is that the total outflow globally of people from Sri Lanka in the last three years has gone through the roof because of civil disturbances there. The second is that the outflow from Iraq has similarly gone up because of problems of instability in Iraq. Thirdly, when it comes to Afghanistan, the same trend has occurred since 2005 as well. Furthermore, if you look at the numbers of asylum seekers—those seeking to be processed in various countries of the world—they nationally have broadly reflected these global numbers.

That is what we are dealing with here in Australia as well. We have a policy which we have defended in the course of this debate because it is the right approach. It is the responsible approach. It is hardline on people smugglers. It seeks to be compassionate in relation to the circumstances of asylum seekers. That is the right approach under these difficult circumstances. Our approach, however, is consistent. Those, they cut and they trim each day depending on the politics of this debate because they are driven not by the policy of this but by the politics of the document which was circulated to the Australian newspaper yesterday, which says:

In prosecuting debates of this type you do not get news stories by trying to change perceptions; you get them by reinforcing stereotypes.

Quote unquote from the Liberal Party; quote unquote, from Senator Ronaldson’s chief of staff after, apparently, a meeting between himself and the office of the Leader of the Opposition.

Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Education, Apprenticeships and Training) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, I rise on a point of order. The Prime Minister was asked a specific question about pull factors bringing asylum seekers to Australia. His answer could not now be relevant to the question. He may wish to evade the answer—

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! You have made your point of order; it is not an opportunity for debate. The Prime Minister will respond to the question.

Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

When it comes to dealing with the challenges of people smugglers we will tackle it globally through our global cooperation. We will do so regionally with our partners in Indonesia and in Malaysia—which on an earlier occasion, it seems, the member for Curtin was all for, but not recently. Also, we will tackle this problem through our own national means and the policy and resources that we have deployed.

I remind those opposite that in recent times the amount we have invested in maritime surveillance—in air surveillance of the air-sea gap between ourselves and Indonesia—is considerably in excess of that which was put prosecuted under the previous government, because we take our responsibilities across this spectrum seriously. It is a difficult challenge. It will not go away because someone on the other side of politics chooses to wave a political magic wand and hope that this global problem, including a civil war which has been bloody and violent in Sri Lanka, simply did not occur. They are not interested in these facts. They are interested in the politics which were circulated in this document yesterday: the politics of stereotyping, the politics of dealing with special interest groups, the politics of not policy discussions, because they do not work, but the politics of fear.