Senator HANSON-YOUNG (South Australia) (16:09): I rise to speak in favour of the motion as put forward by Senator Siewert. This is a really important issue for us to discuss in this place today. I know, when we have in the past had debates around the issue of how Australia deals with and manages the flow of asylum seekers and what we do to help offer protection to refugees, often the level of debate in this place is very low. Often it becomes all about the politics of the issue rather than about understanding the fate of the people whom we are incarcerating in detention. There will be discussion, of course, as to how people arrived. We know that, under this government, even the terminology that is used in relation to how those asking for our help arrive here is negative: all government officials have been directed to refer to them as 'illegal'. In fact, they are not illegal at all. They are asylum seekers. They are people who are asking for refuge. They are not illegal. There is nothing in Australian law that says they are illegal—nothing but a directive from the immigration minister. I do not want to spend the next hour in this place in an ugly debate, in what is often a very toxic discussion, around asylum seekers and refugees. What I want to do here today is talk about a very serious incident that occurred at the Manus Island detention centre only two weeks ago. A young man died. That young man's name is Reza Barati, a 23-year-old from Iran. He came to Australia as an asylum seeker, asking Australia to assess his claim. For all asylum seekers, there is a process they need to go through in order to be given permanent protection or, if they are not owed protection, to find them a safe way to be sent home. Now, Mr Barati had not even had his asylum seeker claim assessed because not one of the people who are detained at Manus Island have had their asylum seeker claims assessed, processed or judged in any way. The incident that occurred on Manus Island two weeks ago resulted in the death of this young man. It also resulted in the serious injury of dozens of others. Seventy-seven people suffered injuries as a result of the incident. We do not know all the facts of what happened on that night or on the night before, when the first reports of an incident inside the detention centre started coming out to the Australian public and through the media. We do not know all the facts— Senator Seselja interjecting— Senator HANSON-YOUNG: because the government is not releasing all the facts. Senator Seselja interjecting— Senator HANSON-YOUNG: Mr Deputy President, if you could ask the senator on the other side to desist so I can at least hear myself think. The DEPUTY PRESIDENT: I will ask all senators involved in interjection to desist. Senator HANSON-YOUNG: Thank you, Mr Deputy President. What we do know is that a young man has died. We know that dozens of others have been injured. Many staff involved in the incident wish to tell their stories of what happened—many of them traumatised themselves by the incident—but they are not allowed to speak because as contractors to the immigration department they have all signed confidentiality agreements. We will not know all the facts as to what occurred that night. There is of course a review being run by the immigration department and there is an investigation underway in PNG. Neither of those investigations will, I believe, shed light on what really happened that night at the Manus Island detention centre. It is one of the reasons why we need a parliamentary inquiry, and I hope that we can establish that when the Senate votes on that motion, which will be put forward by the Greens tomorrow. We know that this whole policy of deterrence is designed to break people. It is designed to be as harsh as possible, to force people to choose between two hells: either live in the hell that is the Manus Island detention centre, where people are stripped of their rights, where they live in fear, or face the hell of being sent home, back to danger. That is the precise objective of this government's deterrence policy—to break people, to break people's spirits. And, unfortunately, it has done that. This young man was broken. Many others have been broken. And this is a country that has signed the refugee convention, a country that has said, 'We will look after those who come to our shore and assess their claims and, if they are genuine, we will take them in and look after them.' These people were under the care of the Australian government. The detention centre on Manus Island is funded by the Australian taxpayer. The contracts are signed by officials of the immigration department here in Australia. It is run in every sense by the Australian government. This man died in the care of the Australian government. We know that the minister, in his first statements in relation to what happened on that day, misled the Australian people when he stood there and tried to blame the refugees and asylum seekers for causing the harm to themselves. He said that if people had not protested, if they had stayed inside the centre, this would not have happened to them. I think blaming the victim is one of the most sickening things I have seen the minister do. And I must say, this is a government that has been harsh all the way. They have not pretended about it; I will give them that. The Prime Minister says he does not want a wimp as an immigration minister. Well, he does not have a wimp; he has a bully. And we know that at the end of the day it is bullies who are usually the biggest wimps of all, because they are the ones who pick on the most vulnerable, who push them down, who push them away, who strip away their ability to speak up and have a voice. And that is exactly what this immigration minister is doing with this policy and exactly what this immigration minister did when he stood on day one after the death of a young man and blamed Mr Berati for his own death. What an appalling thing. What an appalling position for a leader within this parliament, a minister who is responsible for this person's care, to take. We need more facts to come out in relation to this issue and here in this place we will not give up trying to get to the truth to what happened, holding the government to account for the responsibility they must take. We also need to make sure the staff in these places are looked after. Story after story of traumatised workers continues to come out. The brutality that was inflicted on the refugees that night shook Manus Island. Those staff need the right to speak out and to be protected too. (Time expired)