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

In answer to the member's question, I did make a mistake: I made a mistake in assuming that the opposition would ever be motivated by the national interest. I made that mistake and I am happy to put my hand up to it. I thought that at some point the opposition that had said 'stop the boats' might be prepared to walk into this parliament and vote to give this government and governments in the future the same powers to deal with offshore processing that governments in the past have had. The mistake that I made was believing that somewhere deep down they believe in the national interest.

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