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

The allegation I was making is very clear, Mr Speaker, and that is that it is a month since we introduced this legislation and the Labor Party still cannot say if they support it or not. That is just a statement of fact. If they want to get up now after my answer and say whether they support it or not, I'm sure the government will facilitate that opportunity. That is exactly what the Leader of the Opposition did when we introduced our largest crackdown and took passports off paedophiles—he pledged their support within two hours of our announcing that legislation.

This is a very important point about the government's priorities. We believe it is vitally important that the most serious sex offenders serve time in prison. We believe that people responsible for gun smuggling serve time in prison. Yet the Labor Party don't know what they think about the first proposal and they actively oppose the second proposal. Three times we have introduced into the Senate legislation relating to illegal firearms trafficking and three times in a row the Labor Party have joined with the Greens to block it.

Ms Plibersek interjecting—

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