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

What we have always asked of members opposite is that they get up in the morning and spend five minutes thinking about the national interest, that they suspend for just five minutes their constant obsession with their own political interest. We ask that in those five minutes they ask themselves, 'Is it appropriate for executive government to have the powers that it needs, the same powers that the Howard government used, to have people processed offshore—yes or no?' The answer to that question is yes, and that means the member who has asked the question, and all of the members who sit alongside him, should come into this House and defy the recklessness and political opportunism of the Leader of the Opposition and vote for the government's amendments. Every vote will be recorded by every member.

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