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 Employment, Skills, Small and Family Business (Senator Cash) to a question without notice asked by Senator McKim today relating to immigration detention.

The Nadesalingam family, otherwise known as the Biloela family, has made a life here in Australia. This country is their home, and they are much loved members of the Biloela community. It is absolutely outrageous the way the government has treated this family and wasted so much time and taxpayers' money persecuting them and being cruel to an innocent family.

It was around three years ago that this family was ripped from their home and their community in Biloela without warning, under the cover of darkness in a pre-dawn raid. To describe that episode as extremely traumatic, especially for the two young children, would be a gross understatement. I've seen the video of that terrible event, and what that family was put through that night, particularly the two young children, was disgusting and abhorrent. They've all been in immigration detention for nearly three years and on Christmas Island for about 2½ years. Over this time, the government has deprived them arbitrarily of their liberty and has spent over $6 million of public funds on their detention and on legal fees fighting to deport them to Sri Lanka, where they have justifiable fear for their lives. The government's fought this through the Federal Circuit Court, the Federal Court and the High Court.

I want to make the point that the minister, with a simple stroke of his pen, could immediately release this family from detention and allow them to get on with their lives in the Biloela community, a community they contributed to and where they have been embraced so warmly. I want to give a shout-out to the Biloela community, who, from day one, has stood up for this family and fought for this family to be returned to where they belong, in Biloela. It's not just the Biloela community that has fought for their release; Australians more broadly have been rightly horrified at their treatment by the government, with nearly a quarter of a million people signing a petition calling for their release. When I asked Minister Cash why she is ignoring the hundreds of thousands of Australians who have called for the innocent family's release, she responded that she didn't accept the premise of the question. Well, Minister, check out the petition. Nearly a quarter of a million Australians have signed it. Trying to deport a family, including their two Australian-born children, in the dead of night is sadly typical of this government's heartlessness and is indicative of Australia's cruel and inhumane immigration and immigration detention regimes.

I've been to Manus Island five times—and I see Senator Duniam shaking his head. I know the cruelty; I've seen it firsthand. If anyone wants to deny the cruelty, I challenge them now: get over to Papua New Guinea, get over to Nauru and look at these poor people. Look them in the eye, Senator Duniam, and then you can come back in here and try and convince us that you understand the damage that you have caused to them, the deaths that you people are personally responsible for, the hundreds of lives that you people have destroyed through your cruel and unnecessary policy of indefinite immigration detention, including your cruel policy of indefinite offshore detention. You have ruined lives. You have broken Australia's international obligation. You are responsible for people's deaths. You have collectively—and I say this to the Liberal and National parties, and the ALP—got blood on your hands. This country should not put people in immigration detention for any more than seven days without a court order.

I thank Senator Cash for seeking further advice on the riot that occurred on Christmas Island in January, and I look forward to her coming back into this chamber and sharing further advice with her colleagues.

Question agreed to.