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

Labor is dancing to the Liberals' tune. Labor is letting the Liberals' write anti-refugee legislation and then it is rushing it through parliament. Labor clearly learned nothing from the last week we were here. Last time we were here the Leader of the Opposition led a fear campaign based on misinformation that sought to demonise refugees, and Labor caved in. Labor caved in and let the opposition write legislation and rush it through parliament without any kind of scrutiny or consideration of the implications of it. Here we are back again a week later with more rushed legislation, some of which we hear is about fixing up errors that were made in the rush last time without giving the parliament time to scrutinise it.

We are dealing with some of the most serious issues that confront this parliament—namely, questions of liberty, how to deal with the Constitution and the relationship between this parliament and the High Court.

The High Court has said previous approaches from Labor and Liberal governments that are based on just taking people and locking them up indefinitely are unlawful—that you can't do that; that that's not the basis for an immigration system. In response, we here in this parliament should be saying, 'Let's have a sober discussion, taking the time that is necessary, about what a constitutional migration system might look like in this country.' We as the Greens would say that's one based on Australia joining other countries in the rest of the world and saying you don't have indefinite immigration detention, because locking people up forever is not a way to keep the community safe and not a way to deal with our immigration laws, and now we know it's unconstitutional. But, instead, what happened last time? The Leader of the Opposition ran a scare campaign, and Labor caved in. Labor caved in and passed legislation.

We said at the time that that is not a way to deal with these issues, and here we are back again, the very next week, dealing with one bit of legislation that might even turn into another one in the course of today or the course of this week. And we got to see the legislation this morning! This is legislation to deal with questions of what the High Court can and can't do, apparently, from our quick look at it. This is legislation to deal with the relationship between parliament and the most senior court in this country, and we're told we've got an hour to debate it. We've got less than a day to have a look at it, to go and get legal advice, to work out whether there could be unintended consequences of it—less than a day—and less than an hour to even debate it.

The Labor government may as well just be done with it and appoint the Leader of the Opposition the new home affairs minister. That's how much he is running the show. This ought to ring huge alarm bells in this country because the Leader of the Opposition has made his history and his political career out of punching down and demonising people. I remember when he said that people in my town of Melbourne were scared to go out because of African gangs—absolutely demonising, monstrous language. We know what he's done with refugees and migrants in this country. We've seen how much he's prepared to demonise them and mislead the public about what happens when people come here seeking our help, and how he's tried to turn people into second-class citizens by removing their rights.

When even the High Court says, 'No, hang on, actually there are some limits to this. There are some limits to saying you're going to start stripping away people's rights and locking them up forever,' that should be a warning to the Labor government that the previous approaches led by the Liberals are the wrong way to go. But, no, Labor rolls over and lets the Leader of the Opposition tickle its tummy and says, 'Here are the instructions for the legislation; why don't you have the drafter's phone number? Just draft the legislation yourself and come back here, and we as the Labor government will rush it through parliament without giving anyone the time to scrutinise it.'

I say this to Labor and I said this last time—they clearly haven't learnt the lesson, so I'll say it again: don't engage in a race to the bottom with the opposition; don't engage in a race to the bottom with the Leader of the Opposition, because there's nowhere he won't go. If you follow the moral compass of the opposition, you're going to find yourself at the bottom of the ocean. So, Labor, stop engaging in a race to the bottom with the coalition. Stop letting the Leader of the Opposition write your legislation. Let's have a sober debate about what a proper migration system in this country looks like and give this parliament the time to debate it—not one hour.

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