Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Infrastructure and Transport) Share this | Hansard source

Labor will not be supporting the government's position on the amendments to the Transport Security Amendment (Serious or Organised Crime) Bill 2016 and will be supporting the decisions made in the Australian Senate. We did not initiate these amendments; these particular amendments were moved by Senator Leyonhjelm of the LDP. But I will say this with regard to this issue, which goes to what I think is emerging, unfortunately, as a distinction between the government's position and Labor's position, not just as the opposition but, clearly, a majority of the Senate as well. The government is moving away from the view that when it comes to national security interests related to transport it is absolutely essential that we target effectively. If you do not target effectively, if you have a broadbrush approach, then you fail to concentrate on the task at hand. The task at hand, of course, is our national security.

It is not a disagreement between the government and the opposition with regard to the objectives on national security. Indeed, it is far from it. Wherever possible, we have tried to be cooperative and to engage with the government on all of these issues. The changes that Labor made in government to ASIC and MSIC cards and national security at our airports—where we have the most stringent regime of anywhere in the world with regard to full body scanners and a 'no scan, no fly' policy—mean that Australians can be certain that the government and indeed the parliament are doing whatever we can to keep them safe from harm.

But with regard to this particular position and with amendments coming up to change the reference to 'serious and organised', the government's first position was 'serious or organised'. Now what they are doing is attempting to make changes which would say just 'serious' crime. To get rid of the term 'organised' from the Senate amendments seems to me to be an unfortunate occurrence.

If I were the government of the day, what I would do is try and negotiate good outcomes through the Senate. There is no-one in the Senate, be it Senator Leyonhjelm or anyone in the opposition, or indeed in the House of Representatives that does not take these issues seriously. But the government are essentially ensuring, by their rejection of the Senate amendments, that this legislation does not pass this parliament today. They have another option before them, which is to accept the amendments that have been made by the Senate and implement the legislation as has been democratically determined after discussions both here in the House of Representatives and in the Senate. It was not as if I did not have discussions and raise with the minister Labor's concerns about the proposed legislation and indeed attempt to get the government to move the amendments that we subsequently got carried in the Senate in order to ensure that there was a bipartisan position on legislation such as this, which, I believe, is ideal.

By the government opposing these amendments (Extension of time granted)they ensure that the legislation essentially fails. The Senate has determined its view. The Senate will not be dealing with these matters tonight before it rises. Therefore, the government are walking away from legislation that could be put in place—legislation that the government have said is required and is a response to not only the Ice Taskforce but also other reports and inquiries. With respect to the minister, I think that shows very poor judgement on his behalf and on the government's behalf. But, then again, this is a government that cannot implement their agenda. They cannot implement their agenda in part because they do not have a coherent strategy. The only thing the ministers can agree on is their dress sense. In terms of actually getting on with the business of government, they continue to fail.

I would suggest that it is not too late, Minister Chester, to actually stand up to whoever it is who has come up with this rather bizarre strategy of saying, 'This legislation isn't everything that we want, so we'll have nothing.' That is the strategy that, in effect, you are adopting here. I say to the minister that if this legislation is important, if this legislation does require an amendment to the transport security regime in this country, then they should accept the amendments that have been made in the Senate. That is Labor's position and that is why we are opposing the proposition that is being put forward by the minister and why we will be opposing all of the government's amendments.

We believe fundamentally that there are elements of this legislation that are important and that we want to see put in place, not kicked down the road. This legislation was introduced in 2016. If there were serious security issues in our airports and in our ports, I would suggest that legislation should not take months and months to debate; it should be done expeditiously. What we are seeing here is the exact opposite of that, consistent with a government that, frankly, has completely lost its way. It is so obsessed with its internal divisions that it is failing to govern for the nation.

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