Michelle Rowland (Greenway, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Communications) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Banks for his contribution to this debate. But he certainly does have a hide to come in here and talk about competence, as a minister in the former government who completely bungled the immigration portfolio. He left it in the mess that it is today, for this side of the House to mop up after him. He was a minister in the previous government who sat around and did nothing about some of the key challenges facing Australia when it came to immigration.

I would suggest to the shadow minister, if he wants to get smart in here talking about competence, three things. First, he should get a mirror. Second, he should understand the fact that in 2020, when this review was conducted, it actually wasn't released by those opposite. Nothing happened. It gathered dust along with everything else, every other major piece of review, in this portfolio. The Universal Service Obligation, for example, was subjected to how many reviews, and nothing substantive happened. We had an inquiry into banning credit cards for online wagering, and nothing happened. We had a significant review into the Classification Scheme, and nothing happened. Very clearly, this is a member opposite who seeks to come in here and lecture us about competency. Third is the fact that we are choosing to clarify here under the 'classify once' principal to avoid it going to the Senate and being amended in the Senate when we know that there has been stakeholder feedback for years in this area.

For the avoidance of doubt: we are choosing to do this so that classification once applies to all of these players in the sector.

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