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

I think it is appalling to hear the level of debate we just heard from the previous speaker on an issue that is incredibly serious: the abuse of children and the rape of women inside the Nauru detention camp, done at the hands of guards paid for by the Australian taxpayer, funded by the Australian taxpayer, overseen by the Australian government and managed by the Australian government's contractor, Transfield Services. If this place is not able to discuss the spending of $1.2 billion to run this camp and ensure that children are safe and that women are not being raped—if we are not going to take responsibility for it—who will?

It is precisely why, when the legislation was first drafted to re-establish Nauru and Manus Island, I stood with my Greens colleagues in this place and moved amendment after amendment after amendment to try to put in safeguards. And who voted against every single one of those amendments? Senator Macdonald, and every single member of the coalition—and, I might say, every member of the Labor Party in this place too.

So: the mistakes have now been realised. This camp is horrendous. It is shameful that we are leaving vulnerable people there who have committed no crime but to try to get themselves and their families out of a war zone. And today, of all days, when we are discussing Australia taking more people from the war zones in Syria and Iraq, you have got to wonder: where is the common sense and the debate about other people who have already tried to get here, for safety, and have been shipped off to be dumped and locked up on Nauru, and are being abused, harmed and hurt?

We hear from government members that that is all okay and we should not be asking any questions. No—not good enough; absolutely not good enough.

Thankfully, we have seen, particularly over the last few days but increasingly over the last weeks and months, an opening of heart and a compassion and a desire to welcome people who are in such desperate need of protection and safety. When they flee from war zones, families get torn apart; lives get destroyed. And, for the people who made their way to Australia in the vain hope that they might find protection and safety here, we now need to turn our generosity of heart and our compassion to what we can do for those people here as well, because they have fled the same wars. They are fleeing the same ogres.

My daughter said to me that she described what a refugee was to her class. We were talking about what 'refugees' meant and what they were. And she said, 'Mum, refugees are people who are fleeing ogres and hot lava, and they need help.' If an eight-year-old child can get it, and if the Australian community is starting to desire and call for a proper response from our government, the very least we can have is a bit more civilised debate in this chamber about the people who are being harmed in the places that we have locked them up in.

They will not be forgotten. They should not be forgotten. And I am never going to be in this place and let somebody stand there and laugh off the abuse and rape of children and women that is happening in Australian institutions. It is appalling.

I obviously have a lot more to say in relation to this report, and I seek leave to continue my remarks later.

Leave granted; debate adjourned.