Sarah Hanson-Young (SA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, Madam Acting Deputy President. I rise today to contribute to this debate on a matter of significant importance not only to Australians but also to Australia taxpayers, who are funding the detention centres on Manus Island and Nauru, and who are about to fork out millions and millions of dollars for the government's latest deal with Cambodia. I want to put a few facts on the table first, so that we all have an understanding of the people we are actually talking about in relation to these detention centres located out in the Pacific.

At the moment, there are 1,233 people detained in the detention camp in Nauru. That includes 222 children and 263 women. We have just over 1,080 people detained on Manus Island in PNG. And of course, the Cambodia deal that was signed last Friday 28 September will act as the newest tool in the government's toolbox of cruelty to be inflicted on these people who are languishing now—as we speak—in the Australian-run and Australian-funded detention camps on these islands. Right now, as we stand here in this place and debate, there are men, women and children in Nauru who are feeling extremely distressed about their circumstances. We know that, over the last few days, there is pressure being put on these people to choose between living in what they themselves describe as 'hell' in Nauru and going off to Cambodia. It is near impossible for anyone to imagine how that decision could be voluntary.

The children who are detained inside the detention centres today have fled from war and terror and, tragically, many of them have been forced to flee by themselves. There are a number of unaccompanied children who are detained inside the Nauru detention centre. We know that, in response to the government's Cambodia deal last week, a number of these people, including children, have sadly and tragically acted in ways that have inflicted self-harm. I think that that is extremely concerning for those in this place—to understand what drives somebody to use their own body as their only weapon of communication: to harm themselves in a desperate plea to be heard and to be helped. When these people arrived in Australia, they begged us for our help and assistance. They were scooped up, told they had no rights, and dumped on these remote islands in the middle of the Pacific.

The concerning reports that are emerging from within the Nauru detention centre continue. We know that there are allegations today—which have been circulating for a number of months, and are becoming louder and louder—of mistreatment within the detention centre, and abuse of asylum seekers and refugees, including children, who are detained within its fences. This abuse has been alleged to have happened at the hands of both Australian and Nauruan guards—paid for by the Abbott government, funded by the Australian taxpayer, and managed by the Australian immigration department. The allegations that have been levelled are very, very serious indeed. It is time that the government acted, and not continue to brush these allegations under the carpet. There are accusations of rape taking place inside the centre. One young female detainee has alleged that she was threatened that, once she was released into the Nauru detention centre, she would be raped by the very people who at the moment continue to guard her inside the detention centre. There are accusations that Nauruan guards have been trading marijuana with detainees in exchange for sexual favours. There are accusations that a guard previously employed at the centre forced children to engage in sexual activity in front of him. After those accusations surfaced, it is alleged that this guard has since been moved from working inside the family camp—but that no official management of children's protection inside the detention centre has developed as a result of this. Children are resorting to extreme acts of self-harm. These accusations of serious sexual abuse must be addressed by the minister immediately.

I look forward to hearing what the investigation which the minister has said will be conducted by the immigration department will look like. We need a time frame. We need to know when the investigation will report back to this place, and we need to make sure that it is fully transparent, and follows a proper and open process.

The mainland detention network is already dealing with a series of very serious allegations of sexual abuse against children. We know this from the Human Rights Commission's National Inquiry into Children in Immigration Detention. And the immigration department's own figures show that there were 33 cases of alleged sexual assault involving children in Australian detention centres and on Christmas Island between January 2013 and March 2014—and that is on the Australian mainland; in the Australian-managed detention centres. I have grave concerns for what, then, is going on behind the locked gates and the dark fences, and inside the tents, inside the Manus Island detention camp.

There is a blanket of secrecy that covers Nauru and Manus Island, and it is becoming increasingly clear why. The Australian government refuses access to independent bodies to investigate what is going on. Of course, we also have the visa hikes in Nauru which have made it near impossible for journalists to even visit the island. We know that earlier this year the Nauru government hiked their fees for journalists visiting the island from $200 to $8,000 just to apply for a visa; that does not mean that they will get guaranteed access or even have the visa approved. It seems that we are starting to find out, from the mouths of those who are suffering inside, what the government is trying to hide.

The situation on Nauru is getting desperate, and the Australian people deserve to know what is going on. It was wonderful today to see this place pass the motion for an order for the production of documents so that we can get a sense of what incidents have occurred and what has been documented. However, I fear that many of these cases have not been documented properly. That is what we continue to hear from those who have worked within the centre and those who are detained within it—that the system of denial and dismissal of the serious mistreatment inside these detention centres is nothing more than a cultural cover-up. It is a toxic environment, and we know that people are suffering every single day.

That brings me to the deal with Cambodia. How can we see sending these already vulnerable and broken people to Cambodia as in any way being the humane thing for a country like Australia, who could and should be doing more to help those in need, to do? The United Nations refugee body has strongly condemned the government's deal with Cambodia. They have said:

Refugees are persons who are fleeing persecution or the life-threatening effects of armed conflict. They are entitled to better treatment than being shipped from one country to the next.

I could not agree more, yet this government seems to be obsessed with shipping refugees from one country to another just so Australia does not have to do our fair share. What do we say to the unaccompanied girls who are currently detained inside the Nauru detention centre when they step off the plane in Phnom Penh and are exposed to the sexual exploitation of Cambodia's sex trade? All NGO and aid workers have strongly condemned this deal. They have said that their gravest fears are for the children and young women who will be subject to this— (Time expired)