Michael Keenan (Stirling, Liberal Party, Minister for Justice) Share this | Hansard source

A Secure and Fairer Australia brought to us by Julia Gillard and Labor—remember her?

Mr Brendan O'Connor interjecting—

Very timely, member for Gorton. The ministers responsible for this document at the time were the then Attorney-General, Robert McClelland, and the then minister for home affairs, Brendan O'Connor. This document goes on to say:

In May 2010 federal Labor introduced tough new people smuggling offences.

This is May 2010 in the midst of the worst people smuggling crisis this country had ever seen. We had 50,000 people arriving here illegally on 800 illegal boats. This document goes on to say:

They include penalties of up to 20 years imprisonment and mandatory minimum terms of up to eight years.

So apparently in the Labor Party's national platform and as part of their DNA, they do not believe in mandatory sentencing yet they are bragging about it in policy documents put before the Australian people in 2010. This would have been put out just before they stabbed Kevin Rudd and put in Julia Gillard and later on of course when they stabbed Julia Gillard to put in Kevin Rudd. They do not know what they believe in, as we have seen. They do not know if they believe in helping us to stop organised crime, in helping us to stop drugs or in helping us to stop guns and they should not have opposed this sensible legislation. (Time expired)

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