Michael Keenan (Stirling, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Justice, Customs and Border Protection) Share this | Hansard source

Now the government is interjecting, but can anybody seriously stand up on the government side and say that they believe this is an appropriate way to deal with people who are accused of the most serious crimes? I challenge anyone—and the government has a couple of speakers coming up in this debate—to get up and tell the Australian people that there are no other cases like this within the 42,500 people they let into Australia courtesy of people smugglers, because they are failing in their serious responsibility to protect Australia's borders.

Mr Champion interjecting—

And there are consequences of that. There are budgetary consequences—over $10 billion blown out and wasted, $10 billion that could have been spent on other priorities for the Australian people—and there are national security consequences, that we have highlighted here today, for our agencies that are already being stripped of resources by the sustained attack on them by the Labor Party since they have come to office.

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