Award-winning author and refugee advocate Behrouz Boochani has used a speech at Parliament House to call for a royal commission into Australia's immigration detention regime, and urged the government to urgently abolish visas that only offer temporary protection to asylum seekers.
The Kurdish writer, who was detained on Manus Island for six years after fleeing Iran in 2013, also backed a Greens bill to immediately evacuate roughly 140 refugees and asylum seekers held offshore on Nauru and Papua New Guinea and said Labor should "be brave" and "do the right thing" and support the move.
Mr Boochani said the Australian public had a "right to know" what had occurred in both offshore and onshore detention, and said a royal commission should be launched to investigate the deaths and harm that the system has caused.
"Forty people have been killed on Manus Island and Nauru, hundreds of people have been damaged," he said.
Mr Boochani was granted refugee status in New Zealand in 2020 and is in Australia touring his second book Freedom, Only Freedom — a collection of articles and essays about refugee rights and migration.
After being told he would never set foot in Australia, Mr Boochani said it was "surreal" and an "achievement" to be in the building which he observed closely from the outside.
"For many years I was watching Australia and I was watching this particular place, the parliament, and always this parliament didn't come to actually a real solution," he said.
"And still after all of the decade, that tragedy continues."
He also singled out Opposition Leader Peter Dutton for remarks he made while home affairs minister under the former Coalition government.
"He said that I will never ever come to Australia, and I will like to say that, he never ever become the prime minister of Australia," Mr Boochani said.
"The reason I say that is because this man and his party has created a tragedy, and they have tried to humiliate us and particularly me as a person and a writer."
'Nothing changed'
While addressing supporters, including independent teal MPs, Senator David Pocock and members of the Greens, Mr Boochani said nothing had changed under Labor.
He accused Anthony Albanese for "showing off" by posing for a photo with a Tamil asylum seeker family who were allowed to return to the Queensland town of Biloela following Labor's election victory, and expressed reluctance to meet the prime minister.
"I think if I do that it would be a part of that show off," he said.
"The prime minister took photo with Biloela family and some other refugees just to send this message to Australian people that something changed.
"But actually, from my perspective, nothing changed while 30,000 people are living in detention or are undecided."
Independent MP Zoe Daniel threw her support behind Mr Bouchani's call for a royal commission, which the Greens have long campaigned for.
"What we've created on a humanitarian front with regard to offshore detention and indeed, hotel detention in this country is abhorrent," the former ABC foreign correspondent said.
Ms Daniel also demanded the government act swiftly to abolish temporary protection visas, which the party promised to do ahead of the last election.
"While the government's promise to end the limbo in which refugees are placed in this country is welcome their lack of commitment to a time frame is unsatisfactory," she said.
"Myself and others on the crossbench are losing patience with that, and I can only imagine how that feels for those who are on various forms of temporary visas.
"There are still tens of thousands of refugees on different forms of temporary basis in this country that is affecting their ability to work that is affecting their ability to access things like health care and education."
Government rushing Nauru legislation through parliament
Mr Boochani's visit to parliament came on the same day Labor sought to redesignate the Republic of Nauru as a regional processing country after it was mistakenly allowed to lapse.
Regional processing is a key part of Operation Sovereign Borders, which has bipartisan support.
On Tuesday, Leader of the House Tony Burke moved to suspend standing orders to pass an instrument to remedy the mistake and allow immigration processing to continue on the Island.
"We have two time-sensitive issues that we have to deal with," Mr Burke said.
"If we were to have a long debate, which I appreciate on the nature of the issues many members would like to be able to speak on it, but there are real life consequences if we're not able to deal with these issues today."
Manager of Opposition Business Paul Fletcher said the government had "hopelessly dropped the ball", while Nationals' leader David Littleproud said it was a "disgrace".
"This just shows that this government's been asleep at the wheel in protecting our borders. If you don't have these mechanisms and you open up the business model for those people smugglers to reopen — this was the deterrent that stopped the boats," he said.
Labor's attempt to rush the bill through the parliament was met with criticism from members of the crossbench, including Ms Daniel who accused the government of attempting to avoid due process.
"The Nauru issue to my mind is controversial — given, much as the government might think it's standard, how much we spend on offshore detention," Ms Daniel said.
"I'd think that our communities would expect that we would give it due consideration."
Independent MP Helen Haines said offshore detention was a sensitive issue and said it was unacceptable for the government to rush debate on the matter.
"When Behrooz Bouchani has just been in this Parliament House historically speaking to us about offshore detention, I find this is excruciating and exquisite irony," she said.
