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senate vote 2024-02-26#6
Edited by
mackay staff
on
2024-07-03 17:08:02
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Title
Matters of Urgency — National Security- Matters of Urgency - National Security - Operation Sovereign Borders
Description
<p class="speaker">Marielle Smith</p><p>I inform the Senate that the President has received the following letter, dated 26 February 2024, from Senator Scarr:</p><p class="italic">Pursuant to standing order 75, I give notice that today I propose to move "That, in the opinion of the Senate, the following is a matter of urgency:</p><p class="italic">The need for Prime Minister Albanese to restore Operation Sovereign Borders to its original design under the former Coalition government, including re-introducing temporary protection visas, to send a clear message to people smugglers that Australia takes the protection of its borders seriously.</p><p>Is the proposal supported?</p><p class="italic"> <i>More than the number of senators required by the standing orders having risen in their places—</i></p><p>I understand that informal arrangements have been made to allocate specific times to each of the speakers in today's debate. With the concurrence of the Senate, I shall ask the clerks to set the clock accordingly.</p> <p class="speaker">Paul Scarr</p><p>I move:</p><p class="italic">That, in the opinion of the Senate, the following is a matter of urgency:</p><p class="italic">The need for Prime Minister Albanese to restore Operation Sovereign Borders to its original design under the former Coalition government, including re-introducing temporary protection visas, to send a clear message to people smugglers that Australia takes the protection of its borders seriously.</p><p>I thank my colleagues who supported discussion of this motion, including my friends on the crossbench. Thank you very much for that. I appreciate it. Why is this motion being moved, Madam Acting Deputy President?</p> <p class="speaker">Murray Watt</p><p>Good question.</p> <p class="speaker">Paul Scarr</p><p>I'll take that interjection, Senator Watt. It is a good question. Why is this motion, calling upon the Prime Minister to restore Operation Sovereign Borders to its original design, being moved? There are three reasons that I rise to move this motion today. The first is the recent report of almost 40 illegal maritime arrivals reaching the mainland undetected in Western Australia's north in the last week or so. There were almost 40 undetected illegal maritime arrivals on the Australian mainland approximately one week ago.</p><p>I want to read from an ABC report in relation to this, just to give everyone listening to this debate the full flavour of what is happening here. It talks about how a local Aboriginal tourism operator discovered 13 of these arrivals, 13 men. With indulgence, I'll refer to the hospitable way in which our local Aboriginal community treated the arrivals. I'll quote from this Aboriginal tourism operator, who preferred to remain anonymous:</p><p class="italic">They all congregated at the water tap—they were really thirsty.</p><p>The report goes on:</p><p class="italic">He spent two hours with the men waiting for authorities to arrive.</p><p class="italic">They reported being dropped off in the middle of the night along the rocky shoreline of Pender Bay, and then walking in the bush for four days before being found.</p><p class="italic">And they begged him for help to get to Sydney to find work.</p><p>They begged him to help them get to Sydney to find work. That's what they asked for. The local Aboriginal tourism operator said:</p><p class="italic">Border Force have a tough job, but there does have to be more layers of surveillance in place. These guys had a success making it here, so there will probably be more turning up.</p><p>That is the first reason I raise this motion today: the concern that the Albanese Labor government is not protecting our borders.</p><p>The second reason is that we know—it is on the record—there have been at least 311 illegal maritime arrivals, potentially on 13 different vessels, in this country since Labor was elected in May 2022, so this isn't the first issue we've had since Labor was re-elected.</p><p>The third reason I rise to speak this motion is that no-one in this country wants us to return to the dark, dark days of the Rudd-Gillard-Rudd government, when we had thousands of illegal maritime arrivals in this country, thousands of children in detention, and a cost of billions and billions to the Australian taxpayer. That's why we're raising this issue. We're actually obliged to raise this issue on behalf of the Australian people.</p><p>Back on 26 April 2022, the Prime Minister said, 'The same policy that exists now, Operation Sovereign Borders, will apply under us.' But it doesn't. The Labor government removed one of the key pillars of Operation Sovereign Borders. I have here the document from the coalition announcing Operation Sovereign Borders, and one of the key pillars was restoration of temporary protection visas for those found to be refugees. That was one of the key pillars of Operation Sovereign Borders. It was removed by the Labor government.</p><p>The other concerning thing the Labor government has removed is budget allocations for our border security. The irrefutable fact is that maritime patrols and aerial surveillance have dropped. It isn't the fault of the Australian Border Force; it's because they aren't being adequately funded. There has been a budget cut of over $400 million over the forward estimates. There has been a 20.7 per cent decrease in aerial flying hours and a 12.2 per cent decrease in maritime patrol days. This is happening under Labor's watch. It needs to stop, and Operation Sovereign Borders needs to be reinstated.</p> <p class="speaker">Tony Sheldon</p><p>The question is right: why are we in this position having this debate? Clearly, the reason we're here is because there's an attempt by the opposition to undermine our borders. There's a political opportunity, here—not an opportunity that's in the interests of the Australian public, not an opportunity that's in the interests of the Australian community, but a political opportunity to turn around and misrepresent what's actually going on.</p><p>These are the same people that turned around, on that fateful election day, the decision by the previous government, led by the member for Cook, that put at risk operational protocols to protect Operation Sovereign Borders—and they're at it again. On that particular occasion, under the direction of the former prime minister, the former home affairs minister ordered a senior military officer to issue a public statement compromising a live, military-led operation. The opposition are here asking questions not because they're concerned about the boats, or because they're concerned about protecting Operation Sovereign Borders, or because they're concerned with national security, but for no reason other than the fact that they want to create fear and division. These comments and their comments will be exploited by people smugglers. That is a disgrace. What they're creating is an environment which is untrue.</p><p>One of the great lies—one of the many lies—that the opposition have put forward is that Peter Dutton said we're cutting funding to the ABF—the Australian Border Force. Again, there is disinformation from the Leader of the Opposition, who should know better. There has been, in fact, an increase of $470 million under this government, including more than $200 million this year, as the ABF Commissioner Michael Outram said:</p><p class="italic">Border force funding is currently the highest it's been since its establishment in 2015 and in the last year the ABF has received additional funding totalling hundreds of millions of dollars, to support maritime and land-based operations.</p><p>So who should we believe? Peter Dutton, the opposition leader, and the opposition, or the ABF Commissioner? They don't like the facts, because when you go through the fact you hear more. Admiral Brett Sonter, Commander of the Joint Agency Task Force Operation Sovereign Borders, made it abundantly clear. He said:</p><p class="italic">"The mission of Operation Sovereign Borders remains the same today as it was when it was established in 2013: protect Australia's borders, combat people smuggling in our region, and importantly, prevent people from risking their lives at sea.</p><p class="italic">"Any alternate narrative—</p><p>Now, get this; this is really important—</p><p class="italic">will be exploited by criminal people smugglers to deceive potential irregular immigrants and convince them to risk their lives and travel to Australia by boat."</p><p>We had some discussion about this earlier in question time. Some people were saying that this is a fictitious argument put forward, so they're saying the admiral in charge of Operation Sovereign Borders is getting it wrong. They're saying the commissioner in charge of the Australian Border Force is getting it wrong. They have said on both occasions what has been said by the opposition leader and by those opposite: that it will result in additional people-smugglers and people being put at risk in the sea lanes of this region. The opposition leader is becoming a marketing tool for people smugglers because he is misrepresenting the facts. The ABF and the ADF have said very clearly how this is moving forward: it is the same Operation Sovereign Borders; it is very well funded; it's an expert operation run by one of the most senior naval officers in the country. We respect and are grateful for the work the ABF do to protect our borders and we back Operation Sovereign Borders. That's the reality.</p><p>When it comes to the visa question, that part of the motion shows, again, the absurdity of their argument. Unauthorised maritime arrivals—that is, people seeking to enter Australia on a boat with a passport or visa—are subject to offshore processing. That is what happened in the past and what continues to happen today. But they constantly put our borders at risk with the unfounded, inaccurate descriptions that they've been putting forward in these debates of the last week. <i>(Time expired)</i></p> <p class="speaker">Nick McKim</p><p>Well, have a listen to this utter disgrace of a debate, these utterly disgraceful speaking points from both sides of this chamber. Let's all take a deep breath and understand what happened a couple of weeks ago. A very small number—40 people; a tiny number—of vulnerable and desperate people arrived in Australia by boat without visas in order to ask us for protection and to ask us for our assistance. And instead of our response and the ensuing national debate being about how we could actually help them, what we could do to support them—a debate that would have been in line with Australian values like generosity, compassion and decency—we have had the debate framed exclusively around this so-called massive threat to our borders and to our national security.</p><p>Those folks are not a threat to our borders and they are not a threat to our national security. The reason the debate is framed in that way is because it suits the Leader of the Opposition, Mr Dutton. He is a political vampire who feeds on people's suffering. It's what gets him out of bed in the morning and what leads him to believe he can win the next election, if he weaponises enough migrants and enough people seeking asylum in this country.</p><p>Then, of course, the compliant media—led by News Corp but by no means exclusively News Corp—jump in, credulously report Mr Dutton's frame and suddenly you have the Labor Party trying to outdo Mr Dutton on border security. This is how we destroyed thousands of lives in offshore detention. This is how we exiled thousands of people to Manus Island and Nauru, where they were murdered, where they were raped, where their children were subjected to sexual abuse and where they were attacked by the armed forces of Papua New Guinea.</p><p>This is the race to the bottom that weaponises people seeking asylum and destroys thousands of lives. The media's complicit. The Labor Party's complicit. And it's driven by the Liberal Party, because it is their political aim to get these outcomes, not because anyone is prepared to actually take a decent step and help support vulnerable people who seek our protection.</p> <p class='motion-notice motion-notice-truncated'>Long debate text truncated.</p>-
- The majority voted against a [motion](https://www.openaustralia.org.au/senate/?gid=2024-02-26.147.1) introduced by Queensland Senator [James McGrath](https://theyvoteforyou.org.au/people/senate/queensland/james_mcgrath) (LNP), which means it failed.
- ### Motion text
- > *The need for Prime Minister Albanese to restore Operation Sovereign Borders to its original design under the former Coalition government, including re-introducing temporary protection visas, to send a clear message to people smugglers that Australia takes the protection of its borders seriously*
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