Janelle Saffin (Page, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Very patriarchal, in context. But this debate is about being calm, rational and compassionate, and it is about having bold border protection, and that is what the Rudd government is doing.

There will be push factors, and we have to respond to them. We are responding to them in the best way that we can and we will continue to do that. The relationships with our neighbours—particularly with Indonesia and Malaysia, countries that asylum seekers are coming from or through—are stronger and closer, and they are trying to deal with those issues too. We are funding a whole range of mechanisms in our region to deal with those issues, and we are talking with those countries and working cooperatively with them. I think it was Minister O’Connor who said earlier that with regard to how we respond, in particular in the area of border protection, we have to work closely with our friends.

See this speech in context