Russell Trood (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Senator McEwen says that she regrets having to stand in the chamber once again to defend the government’s policy in relation to asylum seekers. I feel rather similarly. It is a source of some concern to me that we have to stand here each day and draw attention to the abject failures of the Rudd government’s policy. The way in which the Rudd government has managed the issue of refugees and asylum seekers coming to our country from abroad—particularly Afghanistan and Sri Lanka—has been a textbook study of disaster from the start of the policy to this very day we are standing here.

As you know, Mr Deputy President, there are a rich number of examples we could use to draw attention to the failures of the Rudd government’s policy making. We could look at the insulation program. We could look at the Building the Education Revolution program. Now today we have the example of the government backflipping on its proposal to have an Asia-Pacific community. For any student of political science or public policy there are any number of examples of the way in which this government has completely failed to undertake sensible, sound public policy.

But this policy in relation to asylum seekers is a classic. From the very time it entered office, the government said: ‘We will ease what was’—supposedly and allegedly—‘an inhumane policy put in place by the Howard government and we will ease it in a fashion which will have absolutely no impact on the number of people who come seeking asylum in Australia. We can do this. We can do it confidently. We are absolutely certain that it will have absolutely no impact on the number of people coming here.’ It did this notwithstanding the advice received from the very beginning from those agencies who were aware of the extent of this trade. It did this notwithstanding the advice from the Australian Federal Police. It did this notwithstanding the advice from the Indonesian government, who of course have a longstanding association with these difficulties. It did it notwithstanding the advice of the International Organisation for Migration. All of them said, ‘If you ease this policy it will have consequences.’ But the government from the very beginning was in denial. From the very beginning it said, ‘It will not happen.’ So piece of legislation after piece legislation and bill after bill came into this place, as they went into the House of Representatives, and were passed and the policy was eased.

Of course, as time went on, the number of boats and people coming to Australia increased. I will just take a couple of random examples. In September 2009 there were 468 people on nine boats. In October 2009 there were 385 people on nine boats. In November 2009 there were 399 people on 11 boats. And so the numbers kept on rolling on into thousands of people and hundreds of boats. Then we got to the point in April of this year when the government suddenly discovered that the policy, as everyone had been telling it, was a disaster. The easing of these policies have had a very direct impact on the number of people who have been seeking asylum in Australia. The government suddenly changed its policy with no discussion and no public debate about the matter. On 9 April it was suddenly decided that the applications for anybody coming to Australia would not be processed, that the applications from Sri Lankans and Afghanis would not be processed for three months. This presumably was in response to a rising concern from the public about the number of people who were coming.

What has happened since that period of time? The numbers have kept rolling on. There has been absolutely no change in the number of people who have come to Australia. The consequence of it all is that there is nowhere to put them. The Christmas Island detention centre is full and they are now being spread right across the country. (Time expired)