Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Immigration) Share this | Hansard source

More staff, more power, more authority, and now we have a bizarre amendment. The amendment is bizarre for a very simple reason. The argument he gives is about the opportunity to appreciate the Australian way of life. Yes, that is an important argument. But let us not pretend that there is something magic about the number four. We know how they got to the number four—it was the equation: government policy equals Labor plus one. When Labor supported two years, they made sure that the move was to three. But, much to their surprise, Labor agreed to three. So why did we then end up with four? Because they thought, ‘Labor has agreed to three. Government policy has to be Labor plus one. So then we have four.’ Thank heavens we have never agreed to 20, because the parliamentary secretary would be in here moving that it should be moved to 21 years. He would have a good reason. He would say the primary reason for moving to people waiting 21 years—

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