Mehreen Faruqi (NSW, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

Well, it's another week and another cruel, anti-migrant, anti-refugee, anti-Muslim bill from the Albanese Labor government. After spending all week patting themselves on the back for providing protection visas to Iranian women's soccer team members, the Albanese Labor government are now doing everything they can to prevent any more refugees from this war in Iran reaching our shores.

Labor jumped up and signed us on to Trump and Netanyahu's war on Iran but aren't willing to face any of the consequences. They'll send aircraft and missiles to aid in the US-Israel led bombing campaign but will not lift a finger to help those being killed or displaced or those whose lives are being ruined by this shameless and shameful war. Even worse, Labor will go out of their way to ensure that these people can never seek safety on our shores, and the Liberals are right with them to pass whatever cruel, racist legislation they dream up.

It is impossible to tell the difference between Labor, the Liberals and One Nation. Well done! You all must be so proud of yourselves! This bill might be dressed up in the major party lingo of border integrity and ministerial discretion, but let's be honest about what it really is and who it will be used against—Muslims. The first people targeted will be Iranians, the same Iranians that Labor apparently wants to protect. What utter and blatant hypocrisy. But, before long, we can expect it to also apply to Lebanese people, to Afghanis, to Palestinians, to the Sudanese and who knows who else. This is nothing more than a Trump-style Muslim ban dressed up in Labor doublespeak.

Years ago, we might have expected to see this kind of bill from the Liberals or One Nation, but the Labor Party of today is doing their dirty work. This is a Labor Party that is complicit in Israel's genocide in Gaza and is jumping at the first chance to get behind Trump and Netanyahu's illegal war on Iran. The Labor Party of today engages in the same politics of fear and division and the same tired and dangerous scapegoating of migrants, refugees and Muslims. We all know this so-called ministerial discretion will be anything but neutral. It will not be applied equally. It will be used to target people who are already demonised, already treated with suspicion and already forced to prove their worthiness over and over again.

The bill hands enormous powers to the minister to decide on a whim who is worthy of safety and who is not. It entrenches a cruel double standard where some are welcomed and protected while others are shut out and punished. It sends a chilling message to Muslim communities that their suffering and fear will be met not with compassion but with suspicion and with shut doors. The sad thing is that none of this is new. This country already has one of the most brutal, inhumane and cruel refugee regimes in the world, one that Trump wants to replicate. It is built on offshore prisons, endless detention and policies that punish people for simply seeking safety, often from wars that this country has been embroiled in.

This country is also one in which we are witnessing a massive rise in anti-Muslim hate. As we saw this week, the Labor government can't even bring themselves to support a Greens motion recognising this rise and calling for action to combat Islamophobia. Policies like these have real consequences for communities who see the so-called leaders of this country say that it is okay to discriminate and that it is okay to scapegoat. It reinforces that migrants are the problem, when it is really this government's policies, bills and warmongering that are the problem. That is just disgraceful. Indeed, it is hard to even find the words for the lows that this Labor government has now sunk to.

We should be a country that offers peace and that offers relief from violence. We should be a country that responds to war with calls for justice and peace and offers refuge from violence rather than perpetrating it. The minister says that this bill is about safety, but what it is really about is telling some people that their safety is not important and that their lives are not worth saving. This legislation enshrines racism, cruelty and fearmongering into law. The Albanese Labor government should really hang its head in shame for even bringing this bill to this chamber. The Greens are proud to stand against this bill, and we are proud to stand against this war. I now move our second reading amendment:

At the end of the motion, add ", but the Senate calls on the Government to immediately raise the number of places in Australia's humanitarian intake to at least 27,000 places per year as set out in the Australian Labor Party's 2023 National Platform".