Christopher Back (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

What the Labor government cannot dispute is that the Howard government faced a problem and found a solution. It handed that solution to the incoming government, who rejected it and who have now created a problem. Neither Senator Forshaw nor any of his colleagues can actually stand up and say that there is any border protection in this country. It is decimated. What we see are a desperate government. We are seeing the last resort of the directionally destitute when it comes to the actions of the government. They are poll driven and, as my colleague Senator Trood has said, they are reacting to polls. And to have Senator Forshaw comment on the proximity of this event to the election is most unusual.

It is now the case that the Christmas Island detention centre, decried by the Labor Party, is full and overflowing. They cannot control the people smugglers or the messages that the people smugglers are getting back to communities in Afghanistan, Sri Lanka and elsewhere. They have failed to halt the boats. It is the middle of winter and they are unsafe waters, and those leaking, unsafe, unseaworthy boats continue to come. As I have said before, it is a remarkable coincidence that these asylum seekers or would-be refugees have no interest in remaining in countries like Malaysia and Indonesia, which are of the same ethnic and religious persuasion as many of them, and keep coming to Australia.

But the destitution of this government came to its height yesterday, when we in Western Australia learnt that the agricultural campus of a university was the subject of speculation. There was consideration of the possibility of asylum seekers being placed at the Muresk institute. Subsequently we had the denial from the minister and his department that there had been any approach at all from the Department of Immigration and Citizenship to those who run Muresk for Curtin University of Technology. Then in this morning’s media Minister Evans laid it at the hands of the Premier of Western Australia and his staff. I have availed myself of the truth of this matter and indeed it did start with an officer of the department of immigration contacting the local council, the Northam shire. In the company of the CEO of the Northam shire it was a department of immigration officer who went to Muresk to see whether an agricultural campus of a university might be an appropriate place for asylum seekers. How much lower do you want to get?

The second question I want to ask is: what is the legal status of these people who are now being placed in asylum locations in Australia? What legal protection do they get that those on Christmas Island do not get as a result of previous legislation, and what circumstances are they going to face as a result? Only 10 days ago did we see asylum seekers placed in the Northern Goldfields town of Leonora—hardly an appropriate place, one would have thought, for people of this kind. I hope the minister will be able to refute the rumour that I heard, and that is that military bases in this country have been approached to see if there might be vacant barracks which could be used by asylum seekers. What an amazing irony, that we might have vacant barracks because our ADF personnel are in Afghanistan, in the gulf and in other places creating vacant barracks which, upon the inquiry of the department, might be able to be filled by asylum seekers. What a lamentable and regrettable situation. This government has got to get on top of this problem. This government has got to face up to the fact that it has failed and failed and failed.

Speaking of people smuggling, the point was made only recently that it is costing the citizens of Western Australia some $10 million per annum, because those found guilty and those on remand, numbering in excess of 100, are in Western Australian jails, which costs approximately $100,000 per head. I will finish on the question of people smugglers. The average fee charged is $15,000 per head and these boats have an average of 50 people. That is $750,000 per vessel. It is not bad money, tax free.

Question agreed to.