Nick McKim (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answer given by the Minister for Communications (Senator Fifield) to a question without notice asked by Senator McKim today relating to the processing of applications of people seeking asylum.

I use the word 'response' advisedly because in no way could Senator Fifield's response be categorised as a meaningful answer to the question I asked. Let's be really clear about this. The Australian people have a right to know whether the government asked or instructed ASIO or the AAT to slow down the security assessments for people seeking asylum and to slow down quasijudicial consideration for people who were making claims for permanent protection in Australia, and whether those agencies acceded to those requests or instructions, and, if so, how many people's lives were impacted. Justice delayed is justice denied—and I don't think there would be anyone in this chamber who would argue with that. It is on that basis that we need to find out how many people were affected by this secretive government plot.

I do want to repeat the words of former Attorney-General Senator Brandis, who delivered his valedictory speech in this place last night. He said this:

… increasingly, in recent years, powerful elements of right-wing politics have abandoned both liberalism's concern for the rights of the individual and conservatism's respect for institutions, in favour of a belligerent, intolerant populism which shows no respect for either the rights of individual citizens or the traditional institutions which protect them.

He also said this:

I have not disguised my concern of attacks upon the institutions of the law: the courts and those who practice in them. To attack those institutions is to attack the rule of law itself.

I don't often agree with Senator Brandis, but in this case he is absolutely spot-on. The attacks we have seen from government members, including the Minister for Home Affairs, Mr Dutton, on our institutions and on the independence of our judiciary and the AAT, constitute an attack on the rule of law itself. Make no mistake: the rule of law is one of the absolute foundations of our freedoms and liberties in this country, and an attack on the rule of law constitutes a slow march down the road to totalitarianism and authoritarianism in this country.

We don't have to look too far to learn who, in fact, the Attorney-General was talking about. He was far too coy to name them, but I am not. So here they are: Minister Scott Morrison; Minister Peter Dutton; former Prime Minister Tony Abbott; and, most recently, our newest senator, Senator Molan.

What we are seeing is the slow march towards authoritarianism in this country under a Liberal-National government. We have seen the extraordinary expansion of Minister Dutton's powers and an extraordinary increase in the control he has over people's lives, when he has consistently and repeatedly demonstrated that he cannot be trusted to responsibly exercise the powers that he already has. We've seen illegal deportations. We've seen the appalling treatment, ongoing, of people seeking asylum and genuine refugees on Manus Island and Nauru. We've seen the Prime Minister—an alleged small-l liberal—try to introduce the White Australia policy, by stealth, and by radically redefining what citizenship is in this country, and putting barrier after barrier, or attempting to do so, in the path of those who want to become Australians and enjoy the benefits and responsibilities that citizenship has. We've seen wave after wave of laws that strip away freedoms and rights. In fact, there are laws right now before this parliament which would criminalise whistleblowing and public interest journalism. We've seen racially-motivated attacks from Liberal MPs who want to deport non-white children as part of a cynical attack on migrants and multiculturalism.

Well, we, the Australian Greens, are here to say that we're not going to allow this government to sleepwalk this country down the dangerous path of authoritarianism and totalitarianism. We will fight you every step of the way. We will stand astride that path and fight you. We will fight for a charter of rights in this country to enshrine fundamental rights and freedoms, and we will stand with the people of Australia to defend the rights and freedoms that so many Australians have gone to war to defend—and, in many cases, tragically, been wounded or killed defending. Our freedoms need to be protected. They need to be defended from this government. And the Australian Greens will stand with the Australian people and do just that. (Time expired)

Question agreed to.