Michael Forshaw (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Mr Deputy President, the previous speaker was listened to in complete silence. Senator Fierravanti-Wells said that former Prime Minister John Howard found a problem and created a solution. I remember that when the Tampa appeared and rescued the people who were in danger of drowning we were told, and the Australian people were told, that their parents had thrown their children overboard. Of course, we remember that that turned out to be one of the greatest lies to be perpetrated on the Australian public, and it was used maliciously and malevolently in the election campaign, including by the then Minister for Defence, Mr Reith. So do not lecture us about the problems of dealing with asylum seekers. We were here. We drew attention to the disastrous and cynical policies that you followed when you were in government.

You criticise the current government for talking to the Indonesians about resolving these issues, when many of the people who are seeking to come to Australia are paying people smugglers to get here. We are seeking to negotiate and work with the Indonesian government on many of the people who are transiting. We get criticised for that, but what was the approach of the previous government? They did deals with Nauru and other Pacific countries and essentially said, ‘Take the problem off Australia’s hands.’ That was the approach of the Howard government and the previous ministers in charge of this portfolio. The old adage in the law is: if you are going to complain come with clean hands. The current opposition do not have clean hands on this issue. Their hands are absolutely dirty when it comes to dealing with this.

This is a serious issue. We recognise that, and that is why, when the opposition were in government, we worked with them on such issues as the excision of certain islands from our migration zone and on an approach which recognised that Christmas Island would be an appropriate location for the processing of boat people, and that is what is currently happening. Nobody denies that this is a major issue and a major problem for the country. We are seeking to deal with it in a humane way, but also in a firm way, to ensure that the people who are seeking to come to Australia are not allowed to enter willy-nilly. Rather, we are seeking to work in a regional way to enforce our borders and, at the same time, to work through the mechanisms that have been established internationally, through the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and others, to ensure that genuine claimants are treated appropriately.

I also recall the images that so starkly illustrated the former government’s policy—those children behind the razor wire. They were some of the most disgraceful pictures of people incarcerated in this country. Eventually those places had to close because, finally, the genuine liberals within the Liberal Party recognised it was an inhumane policy and agreed to stop it. Of course we abolished TPVs, temporary protection visas. You supported us. Now you raise the spectre of those TPVs but, when put to the test, you are not prepared to say you will bring them back. This is clearly a major problem. We are dealing with it. For the opposition to try to lecture us about the inhumanity of this is the height of hypocrisy.