Craig Kelly (Hughes, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

This bill is important. It seeks to reopen Nauru. Before we deal with that, one of the important steps is to acknowledge the mistakes of the past. Those mistakes from the past go to saying sorry. As I said, the Prime Minister truly ought to come to the dispatch box and say she is sorry to the Father of the House, who is proudly sitting in front of me, the member for Berowra. Our former immigration minister for years had to suffer bile, abuse and venom being spat at him, when he had the policies that worked, that stopped boats and stopped lives being lost.

A true leader would say, 'I am sorry,' to the Australian taxpayer for the $4,700 million that has been wasted. A true leader would say sorry to our Australian Navy, which has turned into a water taxi service, ferrying tens of thousands of people on leaky boats to Christmas Island. A true leader would say, 'I am sorry,' to the thousands languishing in refugee camps around the world whom this government's policies have pushed further back in the queue. We should never forget the Prime Minister's words:

If more boats arrive, fewer people can be sponsored under our special humanitarian program.

That is what has happened—more than 8,000 people have been pushed back in the queue and are languishing in refugee camps around the world. Finally, a true leader would walk into this parliament, stand at the dispatch box and say they were sorry for the almost 1,000 people having drowned at sea since Labor undid these policies.

It would help if we just had a simple admission that this government was wrong, rather than the deferral of responsibility—

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