Andrew Bartlett (Queensland, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

by leave—I move:

That the Senate take note of the documents.

These documents all relate to Commonwealth Ombudsman's reports regarding people who are in immigration detention for prolonged periods of time.

These are immigration issues covered very effectively for the Greens by my colleagues Senator McKim and, prior to that, Senator Hanson-Young. I speak about them partly because it has become a bit of a theme for me in the few months since I've been back here: it is impossible to ignore how ongoing and unresolved some problems are. The process of these assessments by the Commonwealth Ombudsman under section 486O of the Migration Act relates to people who are in prolonged detention. My memory might be wrong on this, but I'm fairly sure that these occurred when I was in this chamber over 10 years ago. It was certainly put in place during the era of the Howard government in recognition that there were failings in our immigration detention system because people were in detention for very long periods of time without adequate oversight of their situation and without proper monitoring of whether adequate steps were being taken to resolve their situation. It might not have directly stemmed from it, but it certainly gives me cause to remember the period when former Senator Amanda Vanstone was the immigration minister and we had what was a major scandal when an Australian citizen, Vivian Solon, was not only detained but then deported to the Philippines, and Cornelia Rau, another Australian resident—certainly with a valid visa—was detained for a long period of time in immigration detention completely unlawfully. It was sufficiently bad, in conjunction with other things, that the then minister recognised that there was a cultural problem. Those were the words she used. There was a 'cultural problem' in the immigration department. Clearly it was no fault of the government at the time, so it seemed, but a problem of culture in the department. They put in place various mechanisms to try to ensure it didn't happen again.

Clearly what we're seeing is a deliberate application of a culture from the very top down, from the minister via a horrendous new, militarised, antimigration regime under Home Affairs and flowing on from the so-called border protection department. It is now the megadepartment of Home Affairs, complete with nice black militaristic-looking uniforms, deliberately imposing a culture of locking people up for as long as possible and causing as much harm for as long as possible. We had a debate in this chamber yesterday about the inhumanity—the clear, undeniable evidence of massive suffering inflicted on people offshore because of the detention regime. There are plenty of independent reports to look at that and to detail that. It is still important to remember that there are still people in Australia right now who are suffering and being made to suffer as part of what I would say is a much deeper cultural problem and one that has been knowingly created. It's no surprise we are now seeing people being wrongfully detained yet again as part of that. There is a complete lack of care about that fact.

To look at a couple of the cases here—and they're summarised in the Ombudsman's report—the first couple of people have been in detention for seven years. We're getting to the stage where, for nearly all of the 10-year period when I was not in this chamber, people have been locked up in immigration detention and still are. The Ombudsman, of course, doesn't have power to release people. It has a power to make recommendations. Of course, the other documents tabled as part of this give the minister's or the government's response to the Ombudsman's assessment and recommendation. I think I'm correct, in flipping through them all, that there are about 18 in one report and another nine in the other, so that is close to 30 people. Not all of them have been detained for seven years or more, but all of them have been for a very long time. There are 100 assessments referring to 135 people who've been in immigration detention for over two years. For all of them, I think—certainly the vast majority—the Ombudsman's recommendation has been ignored.

This is the situation we're facing now in our country. This is a deliberate state of affairs not just being perpetrated but continuing to be prosecuted with enthusiasm by the current minister. I seek leave to continue my remarks later.

Leave granted; debate adjourned.