Graham Perrett (Moreton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

As we are about 90-odd days out from the election, I have noticed in the last 24 hours or so an increase in hysteria, a lot of hyperventilating from those opposite—from the government, from the immigration minister and from the home affairs minister—about some legislation, passed by a majority in the Australian parliament, dealing with helping sick people under our care to receive treatment. I know that this hysteria is going to ramp up in the lead-up to the election. I know that the Prime Minister, a former immigration minister, sees this as an opportunity to create fear, division and hysteria in our community. However, I stand with the Leader of the Opposition and the rest of the Labor Party in knowing that this nation is defined by its values just as much as it is defined by its borders. I know that we have a vision for a fairer Australia. As Robert Browning said:

Ah, but a man's reach should exceed his grasp, Or what's a heaven for?

I understand that the Labor Party has always been a progressive voice. On this particular occasion, we realise that there are people who have been in our care, some for six or seven years. Here we are with the coalition halfway through its sixth year of government and it still hasn't dealt with people in its care. I know that under Prime Ministers Abbott, Turnbull and Morrison nearly 600 people have been granted medical transfers over the last six years. That was under Immigration Minister Morrison and Immigration Minister Dutton. Did these arrivals dismantle our border protection system? If they did, why didn't the Prime Minister, whoever that was, tell us about it? And what about the nearly 100 people a day, if you average it out, who arrive by plane and then seek asylum in Australia under this coalition government? For that matter, they talk about the million jobs they have created, but they forget to mention that nearly 500,000 of those jobs have gone to foreigners. The Prime Minister, who is out front of this fear campaign at the moment, holds a welcoming hand out to some, while he's happy to wave around in his other hand a 'fear of foreigners' placard—that old trick that's been around for thousands of years. Such rank hypocrisy is on display and I think that is one of the reasons why so many Australians are sick of their politicians—sick of the hypocrisy.

I commend the Leader of the Opposition for having the courage to do the right thing by people who are sick and in trouble. But what do we see from those opposite? Both of the coalition immigration ministers that I have mentioned—the current and the former—have been derelict in their duty to settle people who are in the processing centres in Nauru and Manus. As I said, they're now halfway through their sixth year in office and they have not resettled people who arrived here by vessel after that key date on which the Labor Party, under Kevin Rudd, changed the policy—the date of 19 July 2013—when anybody arriving by maritime vessel after that time would not be settled in Australia. I do remember, though, the member for Cook's disastrous $50 million Cambodian experiment: they stood there clinking champagne glasses and washing away $50 million—all that taxpayer money—for, basically, no result.

Politicians come to this place for one purpose, and that is to serve the Australian people. That is the reason we are in this place. Nearly every politician that I have met here, I used to be able to say, is here for that; they might have had different values, or a different political party, but they were all here to look after the Australian people. But from those opposite we see a strange devotion to cutting corporate taxes. It borders on religious zealotry, almost. And we see Liberals devoted to looking after the top end of town but forgetting the middle Australians—the working Australians—and those who are doing it tough. We see parliamentary committees co-opted to sell financial products and enrich individual MPs. We see MPs hawking businesses on their taxpayer-funded websites that enrich them individually rather than serve the nation. We see jobs handed out to girlfriends and taxpayer funds used towards trips for sordid liaisons. Things need to change.

Family values and service used to be a way of life for the Liberals and Nationals. And now, under this former advertising guide, these are mere words being trotted out. They sound good but mean nothing. Things need to change.