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TRANSCRIPT - RADIO INTERVIEW - ABC BRISBANE, FOCUS - TUESDAY 23 OCTOBER 2018
SUBJECTS: Engaging in our region to help asylum seekers; Scott Morrison must resettle children from Nauru to New Zealand; indefinite detention; ensuring vulnerable asylum seekers aren’t exploited.
EMMA GRIFFITHS: Shayne Neumann who is Labor’s spokesman for immigration and border protection and he is the local Federal Member if you are living in Ipswich and the areas around that in the seat of Blair. Shayne Neumann why doesn’t Australia have a processing centre in Indonesia as Jan (a caller) is asking there?
SHAYNE NEUMANN, SHADOW MINISTER FOR IMMIGRATION AND BORDER PROTECTION: I’ll tell you what we should be doing – is enlivening the Bali Process which is about processing people offshore and Australia should be increasing its humanitarian intake and that’s what Labor did at the last election. We made a commitment to increase the annual humanitarian intake and we should be looking at a community sponsored refugee program which would also increase the intake and I think that would act as a disincentive for people to get on boats and I think we should be engaging with the UNHCR in Indonesia and elsewhere to look at how we can process people offshore.
GRIFFITHS: Well I’ve heard Rudd, Gillard, Abbott, Turnbull Governments saying that they are engaging with Indonesia on this, do you have a policy as a party that wants to win Government at the next election to boost UNHCR resources in Indonesia?
NEUMANN: We took a policy to the last election – we’ll announce our policy closer to the next election – that would increase the funding to the UNHCR to $450 million. We said half of that was going to be in our local region. We do need to engage with countries in our local region and the UNHCR, and we will be doing so should we win the next election.
GRIFFITHS: You’ve announced today as Labor’s spokesman on immigration and border protection that you’ll back legislation that’s been sitting in the Parliament for a couple of years to allow refugee children on Nauru to go New Zealand, to take up New Zealand’s offer. Why the change from the Labor party?
NEUMANN: We want to deal with this critical issue. We need to resettle sick and vulnerable children and their families from Nauru. We always said this lifetime ban legislation which has sat in the Senate for two years, that the Government hasn’t prioritised, was an overreach.
GRIFFITHS: Can we please just explain that Shayne Neumann so the legislation would allow them to go to New Zealand but the lifetime ban is on them ever coming to Australia?
NEUMANN: Well the Government’s proposal in terms of the legislation which has gone through the House of Representatives and is in the Senate is a proposal to ban people even on tourist visas or even if it was in the best interests of Australia economically – if someone came to Australia on a business visa whether they were a refugee who’d been resettled in New Zealand or America – and tried to come to Australia, for any of those reasons, for decades to come. So Labor has always said that this is a ridiculous overreach but the Government in the lead-up to the Wentworth by-election, the Prime Minister talked a big game. He indicated he would only accept New Zealand’s offer to resettle children and their families from Nauru if the Government’s lifetime ban legislation was passed. Now I wrote to David Coleman, the Immigration Minister, last night on behalf of the Party to put the health of vulnerable children ahead of anything else. Now we’re willing to consider supporting the Government’s legislation if certain conditions are met. One- the Prime Minister guaranteed accepting the offer from New Zealand and all children and their families from Nauru are resettled in New Zealand.
GRIFFITHS: All?
NEUMANN: All children and their families from Nauru.
GRIFFITHS: Well New Zealand has offered places for up to 150 genuine refugees hasn’t it so…
NEUMANN: According to the latest figures from Senate Estimates last night there are 52 children in Nauru plus their families. Now the second condition Emma would be if the ban only applies to refugees resettle in New Zealand and if they limited the legislation to the type of visa to close what the Government calls the “backdoor” from New Zealand to Australia; that is the 444 Special Category Visa.
GRIFFITHS: Okay so let’s assume New Zealand is only going to take 150 people, and that is enough for the 52 children and their immediate families, what about the other 400 or so who are on Nauru who have been found to be genuine refugees? What is the Labor party going to do about that if it wins Government?
NEUMANN: We’ve always said we accept and appreciate the American US refugee resettlement arrangement, which will take up to 1250. We’ve also said for years now that the Abbott-Turnbull-Morrison Government should engage with New Zealand, to accept the offer which has been on the table – 150 people a year. It’s been on the table since before, just before, Prime Minister Abbott came to power in September 2013. We’ve also said that the Government should prioritise other third country arrangements and the Government has failed to do so. They have left these people to languish for over five years. Places that were temporary regional processing centres have become places of indefinite detention because of the failures of successive Liberal Governments.
GRIFFITHS: Well they’ve become actual places of offshore resettlement under a Labor policy Shayne Neumann when Kevin Rudd was Prime Minister?
NEUMANN: They were meant to be temporary regional processing centres; that’s what they were always intended to be. But the Government has failed to prioritise negotiations of third country resettlement options. They had the American offer on the table for a long time before they accepted it. They’ve refused to negotiate with New Zealand. We’re asking them to do the right thing to prioritise the health of vulnerable children about anything else and negotiate in these circumstances where it is critical. Every advocate that we know from World Vision, Save The Children, and other stakeholders, the AMA, have urged the Government to do something about getting those kids off Nauru and their families and we are prioritising this. We want the Government to respond. If the Prime Minister was fair dinkum, he’d get on the phone and speak to Jacinda Ardern. If David Coleman Immigration Minister was fair dinkum about negotiating, he’s got my number, he can give me a call.
GRIFFITHS: Well Shayne Neumann, just finally what would you say to any of your constituents in and around Ipswich that may be worried that if you bring these refugees off Nauru, you start up the people smugglers’ business again?
NEUMANN: Labor’s policy on asylum seekers is clear – we will never let the people smugglers back into business. We will not do anything to provide people smugglers with the market to exploit vulnerable people and with these amendments no refugees from Manus or Nauru would ever be resettled in Australia which is the backdoor that the Prime Minister Morrison wants to close.
GRIFFITHS: Shayne Neumann thanks very much for your time.
NEUMANN: Good to talk to you.
GRIFFITHS: Labor’s spokesman for immigration and border protection there and also your Member for Blair if you’re living around Ipswich and all of those areas.
ENDS