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

During that exchange the Leader of the Opposition has interjected at me, 'Consistent over a decade.' At some point the Leader of the Opposition is going to have to start dealing with the facts in the national interest. The facts are these: when the Howard government was in office—and the Leader of the Opposition was a minister in that government—it processed people in Nauru when it was not a signatory to the refugee convention. A fact that cannot be denied. Now apparently the Leader of the Opposition says you can only process people in countries that are a signatory—a complete backflip and inconsistency, part of trashing the national interest in support of their political interest.

Then, of course, the Leader of the Opposition says, 'Oh, you must have legally-binding arrangements. It would be quite wrong not to have legally-binding arrangements.' The Leader of the Opposition is known to use very ugly words about people in election commitments. His own policy document at the election talked about assurances, not about legally binding—another completely sharp act of hypocrisy for them to pursue their narrow political interest. Then the Leader of the Opposition says he could not possibly sleep at night if people were not processed in a signatory country. Meanwhile he says he wants to tow boats back to Indonesia with no guarantees of treatment at all—another huge inconsistency. Why doesn't the Leader of the Opposition just get up and tell the truth? And the truth is he will do anything to prevent this government implementing the arrangement with Malaysia because he is afraid it will work, and he is dreaming of more boats coming to this country because he thinks it will serve his political interest.

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