Mark Furner (Queensland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

rather than being belligerent, like they have been over the last several years, and come to a compromise with us, as we have had to compromise as well.

Senator Brandis interjecting—

You do not have your TPVs or your 'turn back the boats' policies, either, Senator Brandis, so do not worry about that. You go on about your three-pillar policy; you should really read the evidence around the issues associated with turning boats back. I will get to that in a minute, because there are major issues in turning boats back. It is not as simple as Abbott picking up the phone—that was the policy of Mr Abbott some years ago: claiming that he could pick up some phone and decide on how a captain of a patrol boat should operate dealing with illegal immigrants. Instead of individuals reaching out for help, the coalition sees desperate asylum seekers as figures, statistics and numbers they can flaunt in the media.

Senator Jacinta Collins interjecting—

That is correct, Senator Collins. This is exactly what their policy on turning the boats back is. Turning boats around is unsafe. I note that the member for Cook claimed in his opening address on this that Air Vice Marshal Houston has 'belled the cat'. What a load of nonsense. There is no cat that has been belled in this outcome of our government compromising on a solution to stop asylum seekers boarding dangerous ships and travelling to our shores. There has been a litany of examples provided at Senate estimates. I know Senator Brandis as a conscientious senator appears at many of the Senate estimates, at the Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee, and raises many issues along with many of the other senators opposite us here. I am sure they have heard the evidence that has been provided by the public servants from many of the departments and also the Chief of Navy of the risks of turning boats back on our seas. I will get to some of those risks in a short while.

In September last year Minister Bowen explained in the Australian three reasons why the coalition's policy of turning around boats was not viable. First of all was that Indonesia did not support it. That has been a position that Indonesia has taken for some time. We have built up a healthy dialogue with that particular country and with that government and we know that if this policy were enforced by the coalition our relationship with Indonesia would be jeopardised to the extent that our relationship would deteriorate. It is only as a result of this government building up that rapport with that country that we have been able to address some of the issues around boat arrivals. We have sent people over there to address particular problems, supplied machinery in maritime assistance and provided education to address some of the issues associated with boats coming to our shores. As for the Indonesians, Brigadier General Agung Sabar Santoso of the national police said:

It will certainly affect relations if (Australia) turns boats away …

He also said:

We don't want them to die at sea. You can imagine that there are children and women as well.

We have experienced those sad situations where there have, unfortunately, been deaths at sea. Here we have the Indonesians concurring with that position—that turning back the boats will not work.

The second major issue, as I mentioned before, is that it is unsafe. We do not want to see people injured and we definitely do not want to see people lose their lives at sea. That also goes for our brave men and women aboard the Armidale class patrol boats. I have personally been on one of those boats, up in Darwin in 2009, and have seen the good work they do. I know, Senator Humphries, you have done a lot of parliamentary defence programs as well, probably as many as I have—