Delahunty Catherine: Immigration Amendment Bill — Third ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeDelahunty Catherine: Immigration Amendment Bill — Third Reading[Sitting date: 13 June 2013. Volume:691;Page:11168. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]CATHERINE DELAHUNTY (Green):Tēnā koutou katoa and tēnā koe to Mr Speaker. I am rather amazed that this bill the Immigration Amendment Bill has been put on the statute book at this time. I am rather surprised. It is an imitation of Australia and I do not know who asked for this imitation. I am not sure who dreamt this up and why it was necessary. It seems to me deeply political lacking in a fundamental approach to the idea of refugees and a breach of the culture that we have always had in this country.In that sense World Refugee Day next week will not be a day for celebration. It would be good to be able to celebrate this because we have had a proud tradition of and we have been a country known around the world for a very positive attitude towards citizens who are vulnerable. This bill is the breach of the consensus. As many others have already said there was an opportunity to do it differently instead of which we have got what I can describe only as paranoia and a punitive approach. The Green Party has not said in our speeches that this could never ever ever happen. What we are saying is that a mass arrival of 30 people is possibly within the capability of this country to deal with and to do so with respect. We could actually cope with 30 people arriving.There have also been some really interesting speeches about the fact that anyone can get here on a boat that it is not impossible and that many citizens in the last 1500 years arrived here on boats. That is true but they arrived here on boats with a great deal of skill. So for example the Pacific navigators who came from islands right across the South Pacific were not stumbling around in the dark. They knew what they were doing. They were skilled navigators and those waka could do the most extraordinary things because of the understanding of the area because they were locals and Aotearoa was part of the local Pacific track. They found their way through experimentation and they were skilled sailors. But refugees from Afghanistan do not have the same experience. They come in many cases via parts of Asia where as Jan Logie said they are utterly unwelcome and badly treated and they are vulnerable to people who do not have the skills of the original Polynesian navigators or the skills of Captain Cook or access to cruise ship arrivals where people arrive here with the best in terms of shipping sailing opportunities or cruise ship management.We are talking about refugees here. We are talking about doing to them what some people like to do to people who are criminals. We are actually making the leap from refugee to criminal in this bill so the most abused in other countries will become abused again here. That is the Australian model and it is nothing to be proud of.At their annual general meeting Senator Richard Di Natale from the Australian Greens talked about this problem and the way in which the Australians have failed to deal with it. He talked about the cost the protests the meltdowns the international disgrace and the human misery that can occur when you do not deal with an issue properly. And that is what the Australians have done. They have just completely failed and it comes out of a tradition in Australia which I remember as an older person called the White Australia Policy. They do not have a tradition of respect for difference and that has come home to roost in the most ugly way. They are abusing Nauru and Papua New Guinea and using those places for dumps for human beings. And we are goingdown that track. We are talking about going down that track through this bill and people are acting as if it is somehow protecting the vulnerable. I think it is just a disgrace as somebody else said. The breach of the consensus means that we cannot hold our heads up any more.I spend a lot of time talking to taxi drivers some of whom came here through some of the most horrific experiences.Hon Member: You should be cycling.Hon Member: Ha ha!CATHERINE DELAHUNTY: Fascinatingly these guys actually thought this country would be better than this. They ask for this country to be better than this and it can be better than this but not through this bill. When you listen to these guys’ stories it is not that funny. It is not that hilarious to be a refugee. It is not that much of a joke as Jan Logie found recently when she went to a camp in Thailand. It was on the border of Burma and Thailand. She met people who had been there for 26 years and who had no hope of a better life. Are we going to go for the camp culture? Is that our solution?