Nigel Scullion (NT, Country Liberal Party, Deputy Leader of the Nationals) Share this | Hansard source

The second question is: how will this affect the pull factors that have been created by the Rudd government’s policies? Those are the two fundamental questions that the people of Australia are looking at. Of course, there has been a complete denial from the other side regarding the special treatment. But I note that on 16 November a letter was sent out, with the signature of the Secretary of the Department of Immigration and Citizenship, containing a number of dot points that were obviously intended to ensure that this was absolutely consistent. Dot point 5 is interesting. It states:

The group is being treated in a manner consistent with that afforded to any other asylum seeker or refugee in Indonesia.

Well, the only part of that that is accurate is that they will be assessed under exactly the same processes. So their assessment processes—the circumstances in the countries they came from and whether they were being persecuted—are of course exactly the same. I think it would be absolutely obvious, certainly to every Australian, that there is a differential between every other refugee in the world at the moment and those who were offered a special deal. In fact, the special deal was set out in a Department of Immigration and Citizenship letter. It says, ‘Here is a special deal,’ and it is titled ‘Message to the 78 passengers on the Oceanic Viking’. Well, I will tell you what: nobody else in Indonesia got one of those! And of course the special deal you get is identified in this letter. It spells it out. Here is the special deal, and no-one else gets this apart from 78 of you. All 78 will get: a daily visit from an Australian immigration officer—no-one else will; assistance from Australian officials to register with the UNHCR—no-one else will; and 12 weeks from registration to resettlement—no-one else will.

It is interesting to look at what people quite close to the issue are saying. In an article in the Sydney Morning Herald, Ben Doherty—and there were sources within the detention facility, and it has also been widely reported in the press in Indonesia—stated:

The 22 Sri Lankan asylum seekers who left the Australian customs vessel Oceanic Viking and are being held in Indonesian detention are being kept separate from other detainees out of fear they will be targeted because they are receiving—

a special deal! Everybody else in the world knows it is a special deal. ‘Denial’ is not a river in North Africa. The people opposite need to start getting with the program and start getting onto the truth, because they have been exposed. There is absolutely no doubt about it that these individuals have had special treatment in this special offer.

How will this affect the pull factors? You can imagine now that they are saying: ‘We need to do the brochure up every week. We just sent a boatload over. Tragedy happened—the boat sinks or is in a lot of trouble. It is rescued by the Australian authorities. Maybe this is a dud and they will not be happy with our product.’ But, no, there is a guarantee, mate, from Mr Rudd; it is a guarantee that says, ‘To all 78 persons who have slipped out of the people-smugglers cooperative arrangements shown in the brochure, we will guarantee you something that you cannot get anywhere else.’ They must be delighted, because once again the Australian Prime Minister has sent a message to those people who are responsible for the transportation of those people who most need a bit of sympathy and most need a bit of compassion—