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

Here we go again. There is an election looming before the end of this year and, sadly, the opposition are going to resort to the great scare campaign that they resorted to back in 2001 regarding asylum seekers, boat people and refugees. I well remember that campaign. I remember the Tampa incident, where the Labor opposition was given about 20 minutes notice of the new legislation, the most draconian legislation to be brought in by the Howard government. Twenty minutes notice the Leader of the Opposition was given before the bills were introduced into the House of Representatives.

We opposed that legislation at the time—it is often forgotten that we opposed it—and we suggested a range of amendments to it. Ultimately, many of those amendments were picked up when the legislation was finally passed by the Senate. I remind the parliament and indeed the public of that, because one of the most disgraceful accusations that was levelled against Kim Beazley, the then leader, was that he had gone soft on opposing the Howard government’s policies. The Howard government changed its policy position to enable agreement to be reached on the final legislation following the Tampa incident.

Of course, you made it worse. You then went on and did a whole range of other things which resulted in some of the most draconian and disgraceful situations to exist in this country with regard to the confinement and detention of asylum seekers. Children behind barbed wire fences—we all recall those scenes, which eventually led your government to understand that those sorts of places had to be closed down. It was the Labor government that brought humanity back into our refugee and asylum seeker policies, at the same time as ensuring strong border security.

I also recall that it was an election that was conducted not long after the September 11 tragedy in New York. There was a fever pitch created by the then Prime Minister, Mr Howard, about the hordes of potential terrorists coming to this country. The irony is, looking at the immigration figures over the Howard government years, how many people from those particular countries were allowed into this country legally, including just about all of the asylum seekers that came on the Tampa.

But here we go again—it is going to be raised, the old race issue. All around the world there are refugee pressures. We are not the only country that faces them. Indeed, the number of asylum seekers seeking to escape Africa and enter into Europe is phenomenal, incredible. We are not immune from this worldwide problem. We have to deal with it. In my view it is a problem that should be above political partisanship. If you get into government you are going to have to deal with it, and you are not going to solve the problem with the sorts of draconian policies that you are proposing, such as bringing back TPVs and reintroducing the so-called Pacific solution. You cannot even get Nauru to tell us that they will agree with that policy.

I was born in Cronulla and lived there for many years. One of the most shameful days in the history of this country was 11 December 2005, the day of the Cronulla riots. It is a wonder no-one was killed on that day when these unfortunate incidents occurred, whipped up by the frenzy created by Alan Jones and others who supported your policies. I never want to see that again in this country. (Time expired)