Chris Bowen (McMahon, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Immigration and Citizenship) Share this | Hansard source

If you disagree with that, release your own costings. If the opposition do not agree with that they are free to release their own costings, but I doubt we will see that. This is just the operational cost, not the capital cost. Here is a test for the Leader of the Opposition. Last week the Leader of the Opposition said:

I think that our country should have the best border protection policy that the government of the day thinks that it needs and I’m prepared to work constructively to give the Government, to restore to the Government, the option of third country offshore processing which it says the High Court and the Solicitor-General have denied to it.

The situation is clear. The government believes that it needs the Malaysia arrangement. If the Leader of the Opposition is good to his word and is prepared to work for the national interest he will support legislation to enable the government to break the people smugglers' business model by the arrangement with Malaysia.

See this speech in context