Greg Hunt (Flinders, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Climate Action, Environment and Heritage) Share this | Hansard source

I want to speak on issues relating to the carbon tax in my electorate. But, before doing so, I will deal with the comments of the member for Isaacs today. He made the egregious, false, abusive statement that members of the opposition—in particular, the Leader of the Opposition—wanted drownings to occur. This is probably one of the most offensive statements made in this parliament in over 100 years. It is a statement accusing a member of parliament of wanting deaths to occur. I have looked at the record this evening of the language of the member for Isaacs. He called for the dismantling of the Pacific solution. He called it offensive. He referred to it as something that was improper and inappropriate and said that we would have perfectly safe borders without it. He designed and constructed—along with many others in this House, in the press gallery and in other places—a system that exists today. He is one of the architects of the policy in place today. Of that he should be proud—if he believes it.

Since that moment, something significant has occurred. It is like when you watch somebody travelling, and then you see a cliff. When the Howard government implemented the Pacific solution, the numbers coming to this country dropped almost 100-fold. When the Rudd government, at the urging of the member for Isaacs and others, implemented the taking away of the Pacific solution, there was a 100-fold increase in the flow of arrivals. I and others warned that there would be tragic human consequences. We warned that the policy he celebrated, demanded and argued for—on the record, on the floor of this House—would lead to tragedies. He did not want that; nobody wanted that. But it was the inevitable consequence of a flawed, failed policy which saw a 100-fold increase in the rate of arrivals.

I raise this because not one person in this place wants an outcome where there is tragedy. For the member for Isaacs to say that the Leader of the Opposition wants people to drown is an utter betrayal of everything to do with being a member of parliament.

Mr Dreyfus interjecting—

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