Sam Lim (Tangney, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

We know the words 'temporary protection visa' and 'safe haven enterprise visa', but we might not know the experience behind these words. I want to paint the picture of what a person who has been issued one of these visas under the previous government is experiencing. They experience trauma, having fled prosecution. They experience grief, having been separated from their loved ones. They experience a loss of their home country and their culture. After fighting to get to safety, they face no better in Australia.

They suffer isolation in a new and foreign land. They are being deprived of human decency, waiting in suffering for years, for decades. They endure the painful uncertainty of not knowing if they will be deported in a matter of hours or when they will hold their loved ones again. This is a painful life to live. It is inhuman, unjust and not right. We must do more to help people. Our humanity demands it. I have spoken with our Prime Minister and am proud that an Albanese Labor government is working to ease their suffering.