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

The former minister for immigration is now yelling that somehow that is all our fault. But the truth is that that is the outcome of Nauru, and people smugglers now know it. The professional advisers to government have said to the Leader of the Opposition that they do not believe that Nauru will work and that it will be incredibly expensive—it will cost up to $1 billion. In contrast, those same expert advisers who advise us and who advised the Howard government have said to us and to the Leader of the Opposition that they believe that the Malaysia arrangement has the strongest deterrence message associated with it—that is, it has the best chance of being the policy that will work.

Why would the Leader of the Opposition, if he were motivated by the national interest, deny this government and this parliament the ability to put in place legislation which will enable the nation to put into place the policy that we have been advised has the best chance of working? In all of this, the government has never sought for itself greater freedom of action than the Howard government had when it was in office—a time during which the Leader of the Opposition never concerned himself about questions like the refugee convention. He never thought about it once when the Howard government was putting people on Nauru.

So let us be really clear about what is going on here. The national interest requires us to work together to amend the legislation. It requires us to have legislation which will enable us to put in place the policy which we have been advised will be the most effective. There is only one reason that the Leader of the Opposition did not agree to that yesterday, and that is he is terrified that the Malaysia arrangement will work. What he wants to see for this country is more boats because he believes that will serve his political interest. I say again: the Leader of the Opposition is not turning his back on me; he is turning his back on Australia's interest and he should reconsider this reckless, negative position.

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