Lisa Singh (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Over the last six months Tasmanians have opened their hearts to men seeking asylum at the temporary immigration detention facility at Pontville in southern Tasmania. Despite attempts at fearmongering and whipping up moral panic by the Leader of the Opposition in the Senate, the Pontville Immigration Detention Centre has been embraced by Tasmanians, so much so that in recent weeks there has been a groundswell of support from the Mayor of Brighton, Tony Foster OAM, the Tasmanian government, including Premier Lara Giddings, support organisations and locals, who see the presence of the centre in their community as an opportunity rather than a threat. There can be no doubt that at the end of its six months in operation, Pontville has been a success and its impact on the local area overwhelmingly positive.

Not only is the Pontville centre safe and secure, but it is also supported by the outstanding Brighton community. In the months in which it has been open, the centre has become a focal point for national and local service providers, community organisations and volunteers, who have dedicated themselves to compassionate care and support to the asylum seekers. And there is no doubt that the great cooperation between the Department of Immigration and Citizenship and service organisations has assisted in the rapid processing of visa applications.

Tasmanians have reached out to these men, many of whom depend on the companionship of volunteer buddies to ease them through the trying time while their claims are being assessed and, in doing so, made that process smoother than it might otherwise have been. In these six months, almost 400 men housed at Pontville have already been released on permanent or bridging visas or into community detention. There remain currently 262 men in the Pontville Immigration Detention Centre. The large majority of these asylum seekers will be released into the community on permanent or bridging visas or released into community detention. I have been assured that the Department of Immigration and Citizenship is working as hard as it can to enable the greatest number of asylum seekers to be released from Pontville over the next month before the centre closes. A small group of asylum seekers will be relocated over the next month as their applications are still being processed.

On 16 February 2012, the Minister for Immigration and Citizenship, Minister Chris Bowen, reiterated his commitment that the Pontville Immigration Detention Centre will close. It is my belief that the proximity of the Pontville centre to Brighton and to Hobart has been critical to facilitating volunteer support, and I am encouraged that the men still being assessed will be relocated to immigration centres located near capital cities.

I would also take this opportunity to impress upon this chamber that the centre at Pontville was not only a model of detention that was mindful of the needs and care that ought to be accorded asylum seekers but also a model that was effective. I want to acknowledge the role of the facility's DIAC manager, Dean Hulme; SERCO manager Andy Senior; and the staff who all approached a challenging situation with good planning and respect for the needs of the centre's occupants. Though I understand the minister's commitment to close Pontville, I hope that this model can be replicated in other detention centres and the building's facilities at Pontville are maintained against the possibility that they may be required again in the future.

Naturally, all of us in this chamber hope for an orderly and regular refugee migration system—and one from an ever-decreasing pool of global refugees. But if we should be required to accommodate irregular migration on the basis of our international commitments then let us follow the lead of the Brighton community and do so with open arms. Let us be as the volunteers in that community and the people calling for this centre to stay open, and stand ready with the generosity and care that that community has demonstrated.

Alongside staff-run programs, the volunteer support has been able to provide activities that accelerate and ease the transition of asylum seekers into the community and make the time necessary for assessment useful. Those activities have included a range of English and Arabic language classes, driving lessons, world news updates, visits to iconic areas, gardening and yoga. In many cases, the volunteer programs have not just been about acclimatising asylum seekers to their new Australian environment; they have also been about sharing the skills, knowledge and experiences of asylum seekers with locals—providing a real opportunity to foster the kind of understanding and connection that is necessary to bind a community together outside the walls of detention.

One particular story, I think, captures the spirit of these relationships. The Brighton Knitting Club welcomed the asylum seekers by dedicating their time to knit beanies and other clothing in all sorts of colours for the men in the centre, cognisant of the newness of Tasmania's colder climate to the mainly Afghani asylum seekers. But a number of women went further, visiting the centre with knitting needles in hand, prepared to teach the men how to supplement the clothes they had been provided. They were surprised, and pleased, to discover that the Hazara occupants of the centre were already skilled at knitting, many having made their livelihoods with similar skills in making and weaving carpets. In the regular visits to follow, the men and women swapped skills at the same time as they swapped stories. There is little greater example, I think, of multiculturalism in action than people of totally different backgrounds and experiences bonding over the interests and activities that they share, each teaching the other a new ability and a new empathy.

It was a belief in these things that led Emily Conolan to harness the enthusiasm of the Tasmanian community and establish Tasmanian Asylum Seekers Support. Shortly after announcing the purpose of the group, Emily was overwhelmed by the number of people who wanted to be part of a constructive engagement with Australia's humanitarian immigration program. Over 150 volunteers have visited asylum seekers on a regular basis through the kind of coordinated activities about which I have spoken. Some have worked one on one with an asylum seeker to provide direct company and support. Each of those people deserves thanks—not just for their compassion but also for their preparedness to look past the barriers, the physical walls, the trepidation of the unexpected and the cultural differences that too often prevent us from genuinely engaging with others. Their support has helped to make Pontville a more hopeful place. And of course Emily deserves thanks for seizing the initiative that has made such a positive experience possible.

There is bipartisan consensus on the need for thorough immigration processing, including a period of mandatory detention. But we must always remember that the object of an orderly immigration program is not only to protect the Australian community but also to provide refuge to those seeking safety. The vast majority of people who seek asylum in Australia are those who have a well-founded fear of persecution in their country of origin. For one reason or another, their very identity—their ethnicity, their beliefs or sexuality—make them unwelcome in their home countries. They have made the decision to uproot their lives because they face violence, intimidation and discrimination, without recourse to the laws we in Australia take for granted.

The stories of most asylum seekers are stories of fear. For them, Australia is exactly the lucky country of which its people are so proud. Asylum seekers come to our shores by whatever means they can in search of the freedoms, opportunities and rights that make us the liberal democracy we are. Through a storm of danger and desperation, Australia is the first safe harbour in which refugees are permitted to be themselves. In Australia, every person is protected by the law and by the social contract that is so deeply a part of our community, no matter the person's background or identity. Those who violate that contract by breaking the law surrender some of its benefits, such as liberty. But those who seek refuge from lawlessness or from violations of the universal laws of human dignity must be protected by our contract. They must have access to the protections of our society and the security and safety that implies. Such protections are the seeds of possibility. They offer the chance to make a life inspired by optimism rather than by apprehension. They offer hope.

During the years of coalition government from 1996 to 2007, Australia's immigration detention regime had the effect of systematically crushing the hope of refugees that they would ever have the chance to begin a new life. Under the Howard government, families with young children were kept behind razor wire for years on end. Some were released into the community with papers known as temporary protection visas, under which genuine refugees were required to constantly reapply to remain in Australia or be forced to return to the country in which they had suffered persecution. Under the so-called Pacific solution, other refugees were sent to detention on Nauru, a tiny island where some stayed for up to three years with little human contact. For every refugee who has overcome incredible odds to build a new life, there is a person whose hope has been consumed by tragedy or a journey to shelter which is just too far.

Worst of all is when the promise on which their hope rested turns out to be as precarious as the lives they left behind. It is no surprise that many refugees who are already suffering under the weight of psychological trauma—from fleeing a crisis or enduring a prolonged ordeal—simply could not cope with such gruelling stress. Instead of escaping to safety, these asylum seekers too often found a novel type of torment: physical or psychological isolation, captivity and the restriction of freedom. In such conditions, the most tenacious hope would turn to a spiral of despair. In these conditions, optimism degenerated into severe mental disorders. The evidence is clear that length of confinement is associated with the progressive deterioration in mental state. Similarly, the uncertainty of TPV status was the greatest single contributor amongst refugees to post-traumatic stress disorder. The effects of such trauma are profound and enduring. Refugees held in detention for only a short time have far better settlement outcomes than those in prolonged detention. Those whose faith has survived until settlement in the community are less restless and far more likely to move quickly into employment and accommodation and to build relationships in the community.

I am pleased that under the Labor government the parameters for mandatory detention have been dramatically recast. Labor abolished TPVs, ending that regime of dreadful fear and uncertainty. On 18 October 2010, the Prime Minister and the Minister for Immigration and Citizenship announced that the government would expand the numbers of low-risk and vulnerable family groups and children being housed in community based accommodation rather than in detention centres. Today, children are no longer held in detention centres, and 1,600 people, mainly vulnerable families, are in the community under residence determination. Recently, the Department of Immigration And Citizenship updated this house through Senate estimates. By next year, one-third of asylum seekers will be issued bridging visas to live and work in the community while their claims are assessed, and another 20 percent will be in community detention.

Yesterday the Attorney-General and the Acting Minister for Foreign Affairs announced the next stage in the ratification of the Optional Protocol to the Convention Against Torture in order for Australian law to better reflect our commitment to human rights. OPCAT provides for a robust and thorough inspection regime amongst the detention facilities, including prisons, police custodial facilities and, of course, immigration detention centres.

The national interest analysis tabled yesterday by the government makes it clear that even when human rights are a principal consideration of existing detention facilities, as I believe they are under this Labor government, there is still great benefit in a strengthened inspection regime. Indeed, the New Zealand Human Rights Commission noted in its 2010 annual report that OPCAT was valuable for 'identifying issues and situations that are otherwise overlooked, and in providing authoritative assessments of whether new developments and specific initiatives will meet the international standards for safe and humane detention'.

Checks and balances on any sort of power are a basic requirement for fairness and justice, and there can be no doubt that vigilance regarding human rights should be a basic requirement in the power exercised through the detention system. I look forward to discussing OPCAT, in particular when it comes to the Joint Standing Committee on Treaties, as I believe its ratification is of vital significance to the national interest and to honouring our obligation to the global community. I and this government are deeply committed to finding ways to promote the dignity of the individual, especially the vulnerable and those in need, while advancing the interests of the community as a whole. The continued reform of our immigration system is part of that—a reform program that will need to be sustained in order to reverse a punitive culture, reflecting the worst of attitudes towards those who seek only safety, that developed under the previous government. I acknowledge that, right now, too many people still languish in long-term detention, I acknowledge that we are still seeking an agreement to prevent lives being risked on leaky boats, and I acknowledge that immigration continues to be one of the most vexed policy issues in Australia, but surely the compassion displayed by Tasmanians at Brighton shows we all agree our policies should be guided by the hope that brings people to our shores to start a new and better life.