Senator SINGH (Tasmania) (16:37): You can determine the health of a democracy by how it treats some of its most vulnerable people. Some of those vulnerable people were asylum seekers who travelled to Australia on leaky boats some many years ago and sought asylum. It is now some five years on and those asylum seekers, men, women, and children, on Manus Island and Nauru have been languishing and have been treated appallingly by this government. They have simply been left and forgotten. As a country, we cannot abdicate our responsibility for what occurs on Manus Island. But the other thing we should not be doing is creating politics out of this—and that is exactly what the government have been doing for so many years now. They have been creating fear politics with the Australian people. This, of course, has led to these asylum seekers not being able to be settled in Australia; in fact, not being able to be settled anywhere. These asylum seekers have indeed been forgotten by this government—so much so that the government has received incredible and ongoing criticism not just from civil society here in Australia, not just from the opposition and other parties, but also from the international community, and only as recently as a week or so ago, when the United Nations Human Rights Committee released its recommendations from its review of Australia's compliance with a key human rights treaty, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights—another breach of a treaty that we have signed up to, but there are so many more. One thing I learnt last year when I spent some time at the United Nations was that the one issue that we were absolutely pulled over the coals for as a nation, and rightly so, was how we were treating vulnerable people who sought asylum—how we were treating refugees. It's obviously a very opportune week for Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull because he's at the East Asia Summit. He has that opportunity again to engage with President Trump and also with Prime Minister Ardern. Both the US and the New Zealand governments have offered and agreed to settle these refugees who are desperately seeking settlement so that they can rebuild their lives and get over the trauma that they have suffered. We are still waiting, of course, for the some 1,250 that the US agreed to settle to actually be settled. There have only been about 50. But I understand from the briefings I've received that that processing is going as it should be and, hopefully, will happen sooner than later. The other offer on the table came over a year ago—probably 18 months ago now—from the former New Zealand government, but it has continued under the new New Zealand Labour government, to settle some 150 refugees a year who are on Manus. I've written to Minister Dutton and I've written to Mr Turnbull. Labor has been constantly asking this government to act on these settlement options. But it's refusing to do so. What does that say about this government? It says that it is quite willing to leave 600 men on Manus Island, potentially in a situation where their lives are at stake and where they're fearing for their ongoing safety. It is absolutely abhorrent to me and to everyone in the Labor Party that a government would treat another human being in this way. We do have a sense of humanity and that is why we have been constantly asking this government to act, whether it's on the medical care that those on these offshore islands have required in Australia or whether it's on the New Zealand settlement arrangement. We have constantly been calling on this government to act. I say to the Greens: I'm sure that you have well-intentioned ideals in wanting this situation to be resolved. But attacking the Labor Party time and time again is not going to get you there. We know what the facts are. Senator McKim: Vote with us then! Senator SINGH: Senator McKim constantly comes into this place and gets out on the media streams, saying, 'Tell everyone the facts.' We know the facts. We know how bad the facts are. We don't need you to constantly tell us the facts. We have civil society out there telling us the facts. I've had umpteen briefings from the UNHCR. Amnesty International are at this moment waiting in my office to give me another briefing. We've had so many briefings. We know how bad it is, and we have made it so public that the government knows. What we need are solutions. We need solutions to this problem. So stop playing politics with the Labor Party because you make yourselves just as bad as the government in doing so. We know you're the protest party. You're not a party of government. But you need to make a decision. What government do you want at the next election? Do you want a Labor government or do you want a coalition government? Every time you attack the progressive side of politics, you do yourself a disservice in the sense that you are assisting the coalition to win brownie points. That is not helping the people on Manus Island, nor the people on Nauru. Giving them false hope does not help. The Greens cannot resolve this issue. They can come in here, they can pass motions and they can get in the media, but they will not be in government. There is a two-party preferred system in this country, and at the next election either there will be a Labor government or there will be a coalition government. I know which one I'd prefer, and I certainly know which one the people in my Australian community—indeed, in my Tasmanian community—would prefer when it comes to the issue of refugees. If they want make a protest vote, they can vote for the Greens. Senator McKim: You've got the same policies as the Liberals! Senator SINGH: But if they actually want a government— The ACTING DEPUTY PRESIDENT ( Senator Gallacher ): Senator Singh, resume your seat! Interjections are disorderly. Senators are expected to be heard in silence. Senator Singh, please address your remarks to the chair. Senator SINGH: I am someone in the Labor Party—and I'm not the only person in the Labor Party—who has taken a very, very active and compassionate role in relation to the rights and the plight of refugees and asylum seekers for years. I will not have the Greens come into this place and pretend that they are holier than thou with their moral virtues, that they are somehow going to resolve this awful situation when they simply have no power to do so. Moving a motion in this place is not going to resolve that. No matter how many tweets, Facebook posts and media stunts you do they are not going to resolve that, so grow up! Grow up, and start to work out how to create good policy. The dark green taint of Senator McKim gives Senator Richard Di Natale absolutely no support whatsoever. I'm sure he will soon realise that. I think that the Greens, to be honest, are trying somehow to remain relevant in a time when they have become more and more irrelevant. The more they've moved away from the trees and tried to move into mainstream politics they have failed. So the only way that they continue to remain relevant is by wedging the progressive side of politics—by wedging the very people who have decency, who have humanity and who have care for people who sought out our protection, who sought asylum. I am so sick of it. So many people on this side are sick of it. Why don't you actually attack the government? It's the government that is treating people so badly. It's the government that can change its policies. That's what we do! We actually address the fact that it's the government failing these people and that it's the government that needs to find solutions. Why don't you go to New Zealand and talk to new Labour Prime Minister Ardern about her offer and ensure that Malcolm Turnbull takes it up? No, you attack the Labor Party. That's the Greens. That's what happens when the Greens run out of ideas about how to continue to increase their vote numbers. Let's face it, we know their dishonest approach when it comes to this debate. Well, here we are, in a situation that is a calamity. It is indeed a catastrophe, and I do fear for the lives of those men on Manus Island. I fear for their safety and I fear for their lives. And I will continue, day in, day out, to try to ensure that the government moves on this issue and settles these refugees so that this terrible situation comes to an end.