Wayne Swan (Lilley, Australian Labor Party, Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

This government will never—I repeat, never—seek to direct the Navy when it comes to operations at sea. There is a stark contrast between our approach and the approach of those over there. It has been nine months since we offered the opposition a compromise that would have seen the Malaysia policy and processing put in place along with Nauru. In that nine months people have drowned at sea. The fact is that the minute we could get a bill through this parliament to set up offshore processing, we did so. We have been opposed by those here day in and day out—all they want to do is play politics with the lives of people getting on boats. That is what this question is all about. It is a continuation of the aggression of this Leader of the Opposition, who wants to go the biff all of the time. He does not want to have a substantive discussion about policy. We will get on with implementing the Houston report.

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