Senator CHRIS EVANS (Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) (3:01 PM) —I move:

I think all of Australia was shocked and disturbed in February this year when we learnt of the case of Cornelia Rau, a woman who had been imprisoned and held without her family’s knowledge despite the fact she was an Australian permanent resident. She was treated as an illegal immigrant. She had serious mental health issues but she was held as a prisoner by her own government. I think we are even more concerned now that we have heard the story of Vivian Alvarez, an Australian citizen in poor health who was deported from her own country and dumped in a hospice in the Philippines. That is how her government sought to treat her.

These two cases are among a group of over 30 that the Minister for Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs has agreed are cases where people—Australian citizens and Australian permanent residents—have been illegally detained. We have known of these cases since February. The concern of the community has been growing since that time. We have known of the case of Vivian Alvarez since 1 May. We also now know that the minister’s department knew of the case of this woman, knew of their illegal deportation of this Australian citizen, some two years ago and did nothing. There can be no more horrific story than the story of Vivian Alvarez. It comes on top of the horrific story of the treatment of Cornelia Rau.

All Australians, whatever their personal, political and religious views, are extremely disturbed that Australian residents and Australian citizens can be treated by their own government in this way. If you have a mental health issue, if you are unwell, if you do not speak English properly or if you are going through some sort of period of crisis in your life, any Australian citizen, it seems, could find themselves deported and dumped in a foreign country merely because it suited the policies of the minister’s department. I think we all accept that is not good enough. But we have known about this since the beginning of May—the minister has known about these issues since the beginning of May. She has done nothing to explain to the Australian public, to reassure the Australian public, that she is on top of this problem.

The Senate yesterday took the most serious step it could and moved to censure the minister. Minister Vanstone was censured by the Senate in its frustration at its inability to get the minister to front up to her responsibilities and explain to the Australian Senate, explain to the Australian people, how an Australian citizen could be treated in this most shocking way. But the minister refuses to come into this parliament and say how this could happen. She refuses to explain what happened, how it happened and what she has done to fix it. What else is the minister responsible for if she is not responsible for explaining to the Australian parliament what has occurred on her watch with her officers? We know that they illegally deported an Australian citizen and dumped her in a hospice. Surely that sort of serious issue deserves a full ministerial explanation from the minister responsible. But the minister, again, has left the Senate and refused to provide any explanation. She has had occasion after occasion in the parliament to explain herself and she refuses to do it.

She has not debated the issues that have been raised by all the other parties around this place. She refuses to give us a full explanation because it seems she wants to hide behind the excuse that the Palmer inquiry is looking into it. The minister has appointed Mr Palmer and therefore we need not worry because he is looking into it. Mr Palmer’s job is growing. The list of cases he has to inquire into grows by the day. And the seriousness of the cases grows by the day. But that does not excuse Senator Vanstone from providing an explanation of her responsibilities. It does not remove her accountability to this parliament and to the people of Australia. If this is what passes for accountability in the Howard government, then I think all Australian citizens will be very concerned. It is this sort of arrogance that is beginning to creep into this government. It sees it has no obligation to explain why and how it treated an Australian citizen in this way. I think we all have a real reason to be most concerned about our rights and how Australian citizens can be treated. We pay the minister $210,000 per year to take responsibility. The buck stops with her. She has given Mr Palmer a job, but her job is to explain to the Senate, to explain to the Australian people, what went wrong and what she has done to fix it. She will not have a royal commission but she also will not take responsibility herself. She must come into the parliament and explain. (Time expired)