Ian Macdonald (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

One of the highlights of the budget last night—and there were so many, and that's why it's received such wonderful acclaim—was the five things that the Turnbull government wanted to do to further strengthen our economy and guarantee the essentials that Australians rely upon. And one of those—No. 4—was:

… keep Australians safe, with new investments to secure our borders and, as always …

We in Australia are very keen to secure our borders, and our government has done a very successful and effective job at that. That's what I want to talk about today because I chair the Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Legislation Committee and, in that capacity, we deal with estimates of the migration department, the Border Force and Operation Sovereign Borders.

Over the last two or three years that committee has had numerous Senate inquiries relating to Manus Island and Nauru. At all of the inquiries, we've had the same sorts of witnesses advocating for the inmates of Manus and Nauru, telling the department what terrible people they were, what terrible people the service providers on the islands were, how they were all bad and the inmates were all perfect human beings and how terrible Australia had been. It's always been interesting in those committees that Senator McKim and, before that, Senator Hanson-Young would always take the side of the advocates and would always be raising these horror stories about how the inmates were treated.

Just on the weekend I was at a function where a guy by the name of Michael Coates spoke about a book he'd just written called Manus Days: The Untold Story of Manus Island. I bought two copies and I've almost finished reading it. It is a fascinating account from someone who worked on Manus Island who didn't have any agenda to run. He was not involved in politics. He, like everyone else, thought all politicians were mad or bad. He had no personal agenda at all, but he's told the story about the truth of what happened on Manus Island. I think it is worth highlighting this because even now there are a lot of well-meaning people within Australia who continue to be fooled, to be hoaxed, by some of these detainees who are desperate to get to Australia even though they have been told that there's no chance that will happen. And they keep making up stories, they keep harming themselves, they keep doing things to let these well-meaning advocates in Australia take up their cause in this chamber, in Senate committees and in the media. They of course have a willing listener in the ABC and some of the other media, but I would urge all of those who want the real story to have a look at this particular account from a guy who does not have an agenda.

Can I read you just a couple of excerpts from this book? This guy was a guard up there. He tells the story of one Iranian—apparently it was the Iranians that were the problem; the Rohingyas and the Afghans were respectful people who did what they were told and wanted to go home, most of them. The Iranians were always saying, 'Oh, we're persecuted—we can't go home.' But there's a story in there about an Iranian who confessed he was trying to get into Australia because he had killed someone and, even though his father was an important person in the Iranian civil service with a lot of influence, his father couldn't help him and didn't want to help him. So he thought, 'Well, I'll go to Australia.' He flew over, paid the people smuggler, got caught and ended up on Manus Island. As this book relates, a lot of these people are fleeing not from persecution but from prosecution by the authorities in their own countries.

The author was talking to some Iranians and he asked them, 'Do you think it's fair that you are here on Manus?' The Iranians all declared no emphatically. He asked, 'What would happen to me, though, if I tried to enter Iran illegally?' They said, 'You would be shot on sight or hanged as a spy.' He asked, 'They why did you think it would be any easier to enter Australia in this way?' They replied that most of them already had friends and family in Australia who had entered in this way. They knew that they would be caught and spend some time in detention but would eventually be allowed in. But, after 19 July, that all changed. In talking to some of the local PNG people, one of the PNG locals said this about the Iranians:

They are rude! They call us animals, they mock our country … They yell 'F..k Australia' …

They said: 'They get everything given to them—free food and free cigarettes. They don't have to work for anything, but they complain all the time.' Similar sentiments were voiced by others.

This book is a fascinating read for anyone who wants to understand the real truth of what has happened and is happening on Manus Island. There were a lot of incidents where the Iranians, particularly, would go out of their way to bully everyone who wasn't Iranian in the camps and to cause trouble. There was an internet connection which everyone could have an hour on every day so that everyone could have a turn, but the Iranians would get onto the computer and not leave. The guards would say, 'Come on, mate—all your friends behind you want to get on to get in touch with their families.' The Iranians would say, 'No, no, no.' The guards tried to talk to them and tried to get them to move. A guard once bumped one of these guys at the computer and the guy said: 'You've just assaulted me. I'm going to complain. I'm going to go and cause a demonstration. We're going to riot over this. You've assaulted me.' He was barely bumped—there was no assault at all. This book has a very detailed, very factual, down-to-earth account of the real life on Manus Island.

Today, I want to be kind to Senator Nick McKim, who's been one of the greatest advocates for these thugs who use every subterfuge to try to break the rules and get into Australia. I don't think Senator McKim's an evil person. I think he was fooled by these advocates who are paid to disseminate these lies and mistruths about what happens on Manus Island. As I say, I don't think Senator McKim is inherently evil; I think he's just been fooled by these advocates. He's been subjected to the stories that these people make up to get a headline on the ABC or to allow Senator McKim and Senator Hanson-Young to make some impassioned pleas in this chamber. But it is all on the basis of false information. So I thought, 'I'll do the right thing by Senator McKim—I will actually buy him a copy of this book.' I'll get the attendant to take it over to him. I got the author to sign it. He wrote, 'To Nick—enjoy,' and he signed it. I certainly hope Senator McKim and his colleagues in the Greens will actually read it and see what the real story was and see how they had been hoodwinked, see how they had been fooled and see how they had been the subject of hoaxers simply trying to get into Australia when they knew they had no chance of getting here.

Australia is very generous. We take genuine refugees. We are one of the most genuine and generous countries in the world so far as refugees are concerned. But people like Senator McKim have been hoaxed by these imposters. I just hope that on reading this Senator McKim will understand the real truth about Manus Island. (Time expired)