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

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answer given by the Attorney-General (Senator Brandis) to a question without notice asked by Senator Hanson-Young today relating to asylum seekers.

I rise today to take note of the answers given by Senator Brandis to my questions earlier which, of course, related to the tragic circumstance of the 21-year-old young Somali woman who is currently lying, fighting for her life, in a Brisbane hospital.

This young woman lived most of her life in a refugee camp in Africa. She fled that camp a number of years ago and made her way—a very long and treacherous journey—to Australia all on her own, as a very young woman. She asked Australia for help. She was asking Australia to give her an opportunity for a safe life and for a secure future, and to show some empathy and compassion. Instead of offering her that opportunity—giving her a chance at a second life—she and many others who are currently left in limbo on Nauru were simply dumped on the island and made very aware that the Australian government had no interest in caring for them.

This young woman's circumstance today is even more tragic because she had only just recently—a matter of days—been returned to Nauru after being in Australia, receiving medical assistance. She had been here in Australia to receive medical care for roughly six months. She should never have been returned to Nauru. She was on suicide watch prior to her removal to Nauru and while she remained on the island in recent days. You can only wonder how desperate this young woman must have been to douse herself in fuel and to set herself alight.

I must say that I was absolutely disgusted—appalled—to see the Minister for Immigration and Border Protection's comments at his press conference earlier today, where he proceeded to blame this young woman and to blame the other refugees left on Manus Island and Nauru for daring to speak up about how hopeless they feel. If somebody is pushed to such a point of attempted suicide, that person has already lost all hope. And here we have the minister scolding anyone who dared to listen to those who are left stranded on Nauru for giving these people any sense of hope to hang on to.

This policy is designed to break people. This policy is designed to break people's spirits. It is designed to steal hope. And then the minister has the gall to turn around and accuse those people who have been so broken for being too weak, to succumb to this cruel policy. This is an appalling situation.

Peter Dutton, as immigration minister, has clearly lost control of any understanding of empathy or of responsibility for what his department is overseeing in these gulags. To turn around and to blame everybody else but the policy that is designed to push people to a point of self harm, of being broken and of absolute hopelessness is nothing short of being a coward.

When will the Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull, step in and intervene? The Prime Minister has to stop turning a blind eye to the suffering and the harm that is being done, not just in his name but through him and his government in the name of Australians? It is shameful and it is time it ended.

Question agreed to.