Julian McGauran (Victoria, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answers given by the Minister for Immigration and Citizenship (Senator Evans) to questions without notice asked by Opposition senators today.

I cannot think of an occasion, in the last 20 years—at least in my term in parliament, which covers three governments, I should add—where Australia has projected such a humiliating weakness to our regional neighbours and to the region of this country. I cannot think of an occasion where that has occurred. For weeks and weeks the Oceanic Viking has been floating around—virtually aimlessly—and on our television screens every night we see asylum seekers basically holding the Australian government to ransom. This humiliation has been projected around the region. We are told today—the latest on the lines, if it is to be believed, because seeing is believing in this issue, I will say that—that there has been a resolution to this matter. Finally—if that is true. But nothing wipes away the weeks and weeks of humiliation that this country has faced and has projected to its neighbours. Moreover, we have the humiliation and embarrassment of this country losing its strength of border protection, with 50-plus boats since August 2008 having broken through our so-called border security lines. Over 50 boats—and rest assured they are coming in by the day and there are many, many more to come.

What of those Indonesian asylum seekers that have been waiting years and years to be assessed? And that is just in Indonesia. I am not talking about the other refugee camps where applications are being assessed properly, legally and in order. There are those even waiting in Indonesia to be assessed to come out to Australia. Instead, this government humiliates the nation by having to make a very special deal with those on board the Oceanic Viking. Today we are told that the last of the 56 asylum seekers have also struck up a special deal with this government to be assessed with privileges. Not even those in Indonesia that are waiting to come out have these privileges.

The Australian people are in on this—make no mistake. They are quite aware that our border security is now weakened. It is a prime responsibility of any government of any colour, and it is now weakened. It is coming out through the polls, through people you meet and probably through their own branch meetings—if they bothered to turn up to any these days—that the government are enhancing the profits of the people-smugglers. The Australian people are well aware that the government are endangering the lives of asylum seekers and inciting them to make those perilous journeys.

There is one other issue. Time does not permit me to develop it as well as I would like to, but I have touched on it in previous speeches. In addition to all those moral issues that the other side will not tackle—enhancing the ability and profits of people-smugglers, inciting people to undertake perilous journeys, weakening our borders and also promoting queue jumpers—there is another issue that has come to light. That is that the government has placed a wrecking ball through our relationship with Indonesia—one that the previous government built up. Times were perilous after East Timor, and it was vital to delicately massage, if you like, our relationship, but under the Howard government the relationship could not have been better. As I say, maintaining the relationship is never going to be easy, given the size and geography of the country, but it is vital, not just in the fight against terror but in the fight against people-smugglers. The three stooges have simply sent a wrecking ball through the relationship—the three stooges being, of course, the Prime Minister, the Minister for Immigration and Citizenship and the Minister for Foreign Affairs.

Who saw the foreign minister on Sky TV the other day, insulting the Indonesians and insulting the decent President of Indonesia, President Yudhoyono, saying that his words take a while to trickle down to local government? Let me tell you: they do not.