Luke Howarth (Petrie, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Community Housing, Homelessness and Community Services) Share this | Hansard source

I would expect that from a Greens member—through you, Mr Chair. I would expect that from the member for Melbourne, because when you listen to the Greens all they talk about is what's wrong with this country. They have nothing positive to say. The Independent member for Clark is a nice fella personally. I've been to his electorate and I do like the man as a person, but he's very close to the Greens in his views. I believe that is everything that is wrong with this MPI today.

We, of course, are very sovereign. Having come into this parliament in 2013, one of the first things we did was speak about Operation Sovereign Borders and the need to make sure that our borders were strong in relation to illegal arrivals by boat—people paying people smugglers to come to this country. We implemented a set of rules or procedures that Operation Sovereign Borders enacted. It looked at turning back boats where it was safe to do so, it looked at offshore processing and it looked at temporary protection visas. That policy saved many lives. It stopped deaths at sea, it closed 19 detention centres and it removed all children from detention. The member for Clark voted against it and was completely against it. Everything we try to do in this parliament in relation to Australia's sovereignty, the member for Clark is against. He puts out an MPI—for the Greens member over there—about the government's disregard for sovereignty and a healthy democracy. Yet he comes in here, as a member for Tasmania, and wants to talk about the US military.

We've also cancelled visas. We've cancelled many visas of non-Australian citizens, permanent residents of Australia, who are sentenced to jail terms of 12 months or more—people who have been convicted of serious offences: sexual assaults against children, armed robbery and so forth. We have sent many, many people home. We've also wanted to ensure and put into legislation that that not be dependent on a 12-month jail sentence. Who voted against it? The members opposite who stood with the member for Clark on this MPI. They joined him when they stood in approval of this MPI.

An honourable member interjecting—

But you all stood. The member for Clark also voted against that. The member for Clark wants to ensure that permanent residents that commit crimes aren't sent packing. Guess what? As the member for Petrie I say that the Australian government is here to serve the Australian people. The hypocrisy of the member for Clark is astounding.

The basis of upstanding political behaviour in Australia is reliant on at least three ideals: following the Constitution with repeated self-regulation, ensuring that decisions are independent of external forces and ensuring that the people of Australia are fairly represented. Australians want a government that follows these ideals, and it baffles me that opposition MPs broach such a topic without seeing the seeping irony. It seems peculiar that I am here to defend the Australian government and our healthy democratic ideals when, in May last year, we won another democratic election. Australians didn't want more antics or broken promises; they wanted a government that delivered consistently and represented the people's interests. To those members that are about to speak: to argue that the Morrison government does not represent a healthy democracy is to simultaneously argue that the Australian people didn't actually know what they wanted or what they were doing in May last year. The opposition MPs' argument ends right where it begins. (Time expired)

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