Adam Bandt (Melbourne, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

Labor is dancing to the Liberals' tune. Labor is letting the Leader of the Opposition write anti-refugee legislation and then rush it through parliament. A man who has built his career on punishing refugees and dividing the community, now is able to scare and spook Labor into rushing legislation through this parliament.

We are dealing with a High Court decision where the High Court has said that the system of taking someone and indefinitely detaining them—locking them up forever—is unlawful, and, in the face of that, the opposition has run a fear campaign, demanding that things be done that the High Court has just said you can't do. The opposition has been taking instances of crimes that we would all agree—everyone in this chamber would agree—are abhorrent, and then using that to demand the government do something the High Court has just said it can't do.

Instead of saying, 'Well, let's see what the High Court has said,' and accepting the fact that in Australia the High Court has now ruled you're no longer able to lock someone up indefinitely, and saying, 'Let's work out what a proper system of detention would look like,' Labor has been panicked into coming back here with legislation that looks like it's designed to get around the High Court and may well end up back in the High Court being ruled invalid again. The opposition's arguments are despicable, because they are demanding something be done that they know can't be done. But instead of saying, 'No, let's abide by the rule of law and work out now how to deal with this complex decision,' Labor's giving in to them. I've got a piece of advice for Labor: Labor, don't engage in a race to the bottom with the Leader of the Opposition, because there is nowhere he won't go. We've already seen that. Labor has been pressured into bringing legislation here, and already the opposition is saying, 'We're going to come back for more and we're going to come back for more and we're going to come back for more.'

Now, there's a reason that the Human Rights Law Centre has said that this kind of legislation is very likely to end up in the High Court again, because it looks like the government is trying to introduce detention by another name. I repeat the point that none of this is about defending the actions of the people that we have seen stories about in our media and that have been the subject of debate here. None of this is about that. The question is: how do you lawfully deal with that, given what the High Court has said? That's the question that we've got to deal with. What the Human Rights Law Centre has said is: 'This way of doing it is probably going to end up back in the High Court, because you're not listening to what the High Court has said.'

If we were to come back here and have a reasoned debate about how you deal with a significant decision of the High Court, then I think everyone in this parliament would engage with it. Instead, what you have is legislation that was rushed and drafted overnight, and, when you try to stand up in this place and say, 'A Labor-Liberal deal to pass legislation should not be rushed through,' Labor gags you. Labor is trying to silence people who want to say: 'Maybe there are some serious legal questions that need to be asked about this. Maybe this response is going to be ineffective because the High Court is going to overturn this as well.' This is a political response that has been driven by the Leader of the Opposition's fear campaign, and, when Labor members stand up in this place and say that this is tougher legislation than anything that the Liberals ever introduced and they try to out-tough Peter Dutton, they are going down the wrong track, because, as I say, there is nothing that the Leader of the Opposition won't do in trying to divide the Australian community. And instead of standing up to it, Labor is folding and giving in to him. This is only going to give succour to the Liberals, who will come back again and again and again and try and divide this community.

We cannot be party to rushing legislation through parliament that we've seen for the first time this morning and that has serious constitutional implications, when this should be the subject of sober consideration by this parliament on a matter as important as this—and you may end up with legislation that everyone in this parliament can support. But, when you try and silence even people who say, 'We want to have a debate about it', and when Labor silences any debate on the deal that they've done with the Liberals because they've been spooked by the Liberals, that is a dark day in this parliament.

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