Sarah Hanson-Young (SA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, Mr Deputy President. What we do know is that a young man has died. We know that dozens of others have been injured. Many staff involved in the incident wish to tell their stories of what happened—many of them traumatised themselves by the incident—but they are not allowed to speak because as contractors to the immigration department they have all signed confidentiality agreements. We will not know all the facts as to what occurred that night. There is of course a review being run by the immigration department and there is an investigation underway in PNG. Neither of those investigations will, I believe, shed light on what really happened that night at the Manus Island detention centre. It is one of the reasons why we need a parliamentary inquiry, and I hope that we can establish that when the Senate votes on that motion, which will be put forward by the Greens tomorrow.

We know that this whole policy of deterrence is designed to break people. It is designed to be as harsh as possible, to force people to choose between two hells: either live in the hell that is the Manus Island detention centre, where people are stripped of their rights, where they live in fear, or face the hell of being sent home, back to danger. That is the precise objective of this government's deterrence policy—to break people, to break people's spirits. And, unfortunately, it has done that. This young man was broken. Many others have been broken. And this is a country that has signed the refugee convention, a country that has said, 'We will look after those who come to our shore and assess their claims and, if they are genuine, we will take them in and look after them.' These people were under the care of the Australian government. The detention centre on Manus Island is funded by the Australian taxpayer. The contracts are signed by officials of the immigration department here in Australia. It is run in every sense by the Australian government. This man died in the care of the Australian government.

We know that the minister, in his first statements in relation to what happened on that day, misled the Australian people when he stood there and tried to blame the refugees and asylum seekers for causing the harm to themselves. He said that if people had not protested, if they had stayed inside the centre, this would not have happened to them. I think blaming the victim is one of the most sickening things I have seen the minister do. And I must say, this is a government that has been harsh all the way. They have not pretended about it; I will give them that. The Prime Minister says he does not want a wimp as an immigration minister. Well, he does not have a wimp; he has a bully. And we know that at the end of the day it is bullies who are usually the biggest wimps of all, because they are the ones who pick on the most vulnerable, who push them down, who push them away, who strip away their ability to speak up and have a voice. And that is exactly what this immigration minister is doing with this policy and exactly what this immigration minister did when he stood on day one after the death of a young man and blamed Mr Berati for his own death. What an appalling thing. What an appalling position for a leader within this parliament, a minister who is responsible for this person's care, to take.

We need more facts to come out in relation to this issue and here in this place we will not give up trying to get to the truth to what happened, holding the government to account for the responsibility they must take. We also need to make sure the staff in these places are looked after. Story after story of traumatised workers continues to come out. The brutality that was inflicted on the refugees that night shook Manus Island. Those staff need the right to speak out and to be protected too. (Time expired)