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

This is about every member of the Liberal Party and every member of the National Party walking into this chamber to vote against offshore processing. As the Prime Minister has said, today we have heard from Bill Hassell, the former leader of the Liberal Party in Western Australia. He disagrees with the Leader of the Opposition. He says:

… allowing the Government of the day to govern, to have the legislation that it put up adopted by the Parliament seems to me what should and must occur.

He goes on:

The Australian public will not thank the Opposition for more boats and onshore processing, the inevitable outcome of their unholy alliance with the Greens.

Every member of this House knows there is a time and a place for politics. We are all practitioners of that art. But there is also a time and a place for leadership in the national interest. That time is today and the place is this chamber.

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