Brendan O'Connor (Gorton, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Immigration and Citizenship) Share this | Hansard source

One of the problems with those opposite is that there is a sense that this challenge insofar as dealing with people seeking asylum is one that only this country confronts, when in fact that is not the case. Almost all First World nations have this challenge and deal with this in the way in which they have to.

Can I also say with respect to the question asked by the member for Solomon that the one thing about this government is that we seek the advice of the experts and we seek the advice of the agencies, including the Australian Defence Force. The problem we have with those opposite is that they will not listen to the defence personnel who have suggested that the proposition put to turn people back—

Mr Robb interjecting—

See this speech in context