Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

There is a very clear reason for that: the government has been advised that it will not work and that it will cost $1 billion, and I am not intending to waste $1 billion of taxpayers' money on an outcome that we have been advised will not work. The Leader of the Opposition takes constant reckless attitudes to taxpayers' money. That is how he has got himself into a $70 billion black hole. Presumably, he now wants to make that a $71 billion black hole. But, as the Leader of the Opposition knows because we have made the relevant briefings available to him, we have the clearest possible advice from the same experts who advised the Howard government that Nauru will not work and that it is an incredibly costly solution costing up to $1 billion.

The Leader of the Opposition has come in today with this fig leaf because he knows that the Australian people can see that, when he was challenged yesterday to rise above the politics of the moment and deal with an issue in the national interest, he was apparently unable to deal with a question in the national interest. Given a choice yesterday between the nation's interest—that is, working to ensure that our nation can process asylum seekers offshore—or taking his narrow political interest, he chose his narrow political interest over the national interest. I think Australians are looking at this parliament and at the Leader of the Opposition, and Australians want to see us work together to ensure that there can be offshore processing and work together beyond politics-as-usual to resolve this issue and put it behind us. The Leader of the Opposition in turning his back is not turning his back on me; he is turning his back on the nation's interest. He ought not to do that. He should reconsider the reckless path he set himself on yesterday.

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