Madeleine King (Brand, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Trade) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That so much of the standing orders be suspended as would prevent the member for Brand from moving the following motion immediately:

That the House:

(1) notes that:

(a) today, the Federal Court found the Western Australian border closures were an 'effective' measure to combat COVID-19 entering the state;

(b) the Commonwealth, led by the Attorney-General who himself is a Western Australian, intervened in support of billionaire Clive Palmer's attempts to force open the borders against the will of the Western Australian people;

(c) the Commonwealth's subsequent withdrawal from the case prejudiced the Western Australian position, according to a Federal Court judge, and cost taxpayers unknown thousands of wasted dollars in legal fees;

(d) the Prime Minister and Attorney-General put the interests of a billionaire who is trying to bankrupt the state of Western Australia over the health of Western Australians; and

(e) the people of Western Australia will not forget this betrayal, and deserve an apology from the Attorney-General, the Prime Minister, and the Morrison Government; and

(2) therefore, calls on the Attorney-General to attend the House immediately and be given leave to make a ministerial statement explaining his government's actions.

The damage is done. The Western Australian Liberals and this Liberal government have ensured that the damage is done. As was said in the Federal Court today:

… the prejudice to Western Australia has not been caused by the withdrawal, but by the Commonwealth having intervened in support of the Palmer parties' case in the first place.

There you have it: a Liberal government acting against the interests of Western Australians in the Federal Court. They pretended to withdraw, just the other week. They said that they'll withdraw from the case, but the truth is that the evidence was already put to the court. That evidence remains. The damage is done. That evidence remains on the court record. It will go to the High Court. The damage is done, and the Liberal government knows it.

Government members interjecting—

They're a bit slow on their feet today, and the WA Liberals are very quiet today.

They don't know what to do, because they act against Western Australians all the time. The damage is done!

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