Monique Ryan (Kooyong, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

I'll speak briefly. This government is becoming harder and harder to respect. What we're seeing today is legislation by knee jerk. We're seeing legislation introduced because the government fears the political response from the other side of the chamber, whereas it really should be fearing the human rights response and the will of the people.

Our constituents deserve for their representatives to have the opportunity to spend more than two hours with a piece of legislation that includes mandatory sentencing and that will potentially force people back to countries where they will face persecution. This is a democracy, but the government in its own words today has said that it seeks autocratic powers. I would suggest that the unintended consequence of this legislation will be the loss of the government's integrity.

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