The prime minister says other governments ‘would succumb to the cries of the human rights lawyers’ over asylum seekers

This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old

Tony Abbott has said that only the Coalition could stem the flow of asylum seeker boats because other governments would “succumb to the cries of the human rights lawyers”.

The prime minister admitted that vessels continue to depart for Australia, saying that the government has “largely stopped the boats”, a step back from previous comments indicating they have been stopped altogether.

“I’m also confident that only this government can keep them stopped because any other government, I suspect, would quickly succumb to the cries of the human rights lawyers and others and what that would mean, very quickly, is that the people smugglers would be back in business,” Abbott told reporters in Gympie in Queensland.

“I’m determined to make sure that that doesn’t happen. Full stop.

“My absolutely clear message to the people smugglers is we are more than a match for you. Our determination to save lives at sea is greater than your determination to profit from putting people’s lives at risk.”



Abbott dodged the question of whether the government would consider a royal commission to look at allegations of sexual assault and abuse in offshore detention centres, saying that stopping the boats was the “best thing” the government could do.

Labor’s immigration spokesman, Richard Marles, said: “This idiotic statement shows how desperate this government has become. It is astonishing that human rights has become an enemy of this government.”

Marles said Labor remained committed to the policy of settling new boat arrivals in Papua New Guinea.

The prominent human rights lawyer Julian Burnside said he was “utterly astounded that [Abbott] would say something so foolish”.

“It must flow from that he does not believe in human rights as having any value, or that he doesn’t believe that boat people are human,” Burnside said.

“It seems that Mr Abbott thinks that you have human rights if you’re white or Christian or pleasant or rich, whereas the truth is you have human rights because you’re human.”

The executive director of the Human Rights Law Centre, Hugh de Kretser, said: “There is nothing admirable about ignoring the immense harm being inflicted on vulnerable people by our asylum seeker policies.

“Leadership would be shifting the enormous resources currently being spent on harming people towards developing a sustainable solution that provides safe pathways for people who need Australia’s protection,” he said.

“We can save lives at sea without being cruel to those that survive the boat journey.”

Earlier this year, the immigration minister, Peter Dutton, announced that 15 boats carrying 429 people had been intercepted since the government enacted its Operation Sovereign Borders policy, the cornerstone of which is turning back boats carrying asylum seekers.