I do not support, nor have I ever supported the offshore detention and processing of asylum seekers and a few days ago I posted the following on my Facebook page:

I am extremely saddened and gravely concerned by the reports of violence and death emanating from Australia’s detention facility at Manus Island. There is no moral virtue in abdicating our responsibilities to asylum seekers by contracting out their detention to other nations - sadly, this has been a failure of both major parties. Not only does there need to be a thorough and public investigation into this incident, the transfer of asylum seekers to off-shore facilities should immediately cease.

Yes, we need to find an answer to people risking their lives at sea – an estimated 1,100 lives were lost over the past six years (and those may perhaps be just the tip of the iceberg), but I have always remained skeptical that offshore detention actually works – and reports yesterday of another bright orange lifeboat being towed back to Indonesia underlines the concern that our chosen deterrent may not be the answer. It’s also important to note that minister Scott Morrison is very carefully choosing his words when he says that no asylum seeker has reached Australia in the past 64 days – he does not mention the fact that they have not stopped trying.

Reza Barati, a 23-year-old Iranian asylum seeker, risked his life on the perilous seas to secure a better, safer life for himself in Australia. Instead of receiving understanding, compassion and succor from a signatory to the refugee convention, he was sent to a hell-hole as a deterrent against the trip he had already made.

His torturous journey for a safer life has led to no life. He will eventually be returned in a body bag to his family in Iran. Yet both sides of politics still see this as an answer to lives lost at sea. Reza was fleeing a country heavily sanctioned by Australia, and that we strongly recommend against travelling to because of ongoing regional tensions.

Article 14 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights clearly states that “everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution.” Yet for some reason Australia, feels it is immune to allowing refugees to our shores – unless they get in the imaginary queue somewhere and come the “right way”.

Let’s be absolutely clear about this: Australia does not have, nor have we ever had, a crisis on our borders. We are not being swamped by asylum seekers and we never have been. The proof of this is in the numbers. The UNHCR’s 2012 annual trend report demonstrates that the vast majority of people seeking refuge from conflict choose to remain in their region of origin, fleeing to neighbouring countries. In 2012 24,800 Syrians feeling conflict made asylum claims to industrialized countries, compared to more than 1.1m registered Syrian refugees currently in neighbouring countries.

The UNHCR stresses that old and new conflicts – including those in Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq and Somalia – contributed to an 8% increase in asylum applications in industrialised countries during 2012 (a fact not featured much in the Australia’s refugee debate). In all, 479,300 claims were registered across the 44 countries, which the report states is the highest annual total since 2003, continuing a trend of increases evident in every year but one, since 2006.

Around the world most asylum claims are lodged in Europe, the US and Canada, with the majority of these in Europe. Last year, Australia received just 3% of the world’s asylum seekers and the total number of refugees accepted by Australia makes up less than 7% of all migrants accepted. The UNHCR states that by comparison, asylum levels in Australia continue to remain below those recorded by many other industrialised and industrialised countries.

I was a proud member of the previous Labor government and despite my vocal disappointment with Labor’s policy in this area, its one saving grace was the significant increase to Australia’s refugee intake to 20,000 places – the largest increase to Australia’s humanitarian intake in 30 years – including taking thousands of Afghan refugees out of the Middle East and surrounding countries, such as Pakistan. Had Labor retained government our humanitarian intake would have increased further to 27,000.The increase was to target those in most need, including those vulnerable people in camps and in dangerous situations.

In contrast, Tony Abbott has reduced humanitarian places to around 13,000 and reintroduced a form of temporary protection visas, which history has shown only leads to more people desperately attempting to re-unite with their families by boat.

This is not an easy area of policy debate and there isn’t an easy solution. I am also going to disappoint by not calling for Morrison’s head – a man who is quick to judge, careless and accurately summed up by many as arrogant. But I am reiterating Labor’s call for a full inquiry into this incident, I am calling for the ending of offshore detention, and I am praising the Australian public for showing compassion to a young man who has lost his life whilst in our protection. It’s well past time that parliament followed suit.

We need the debate about asylum seekers to be based on fact and not hysteria. Now is the time to put politics aside and work together to prevent more deaths.