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

To the member who asked the question, what she ought to recognise is that this government came to this parliament following a High Court case and asked for this parliament to put the government in the same position the Howard government had been in in terms of powers relating to asylum seekers. We came to this parliament following a High Court ruling and said, 'We believe the government of the day should have the same powers available to it as the Howard government had.' And the Leader of the Opposition and the opposition generally decided to vote no to that. They decided to vote no to the government of the day having the same powers as the Howard government.

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