Ms Julie Bishop (Curtin, Liberal Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. I refer the Prime Minister to the fact that in the past she supported turning back the boats, but now does not; opposed offshore processing, but now does not; supported temporary protection visas, but now does not; wanted East Timor to host a regional processing centre, but now does not; would not send an asylum seeker to a country not a signatory to the UN convention on refugees, but now will; and closed Manus Island then wanted it reopened, but now has lost interest in it. How can the Prime Minister be trusted to implement any policy in the national interest to protect our borders?

Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

To the Deputy Leader of the Opposition I say this: the resolve of the government is to amend the Migration Act and to implement the arrangement with Malaysia. The guiding principles for the government are: we want to support what will work, we want to uphold the refugee convention, which is why we have negotiated with Malaysia to uphold the most important sections of the refugee convention and those are the obligations not to return people to places of persecution and to ensure their claims are processed. We have gone beyond those obligations with identity papers, the ability to work and services in health and education. The criteria for the government have been: what will work? What will uphold the refugee convention? The arrangement with Malaysia will uphold the refugee convention. That is what is driving us.

What is driving the opposition I cannot explain. Some days they come in here and criticise the government and say we are too soft on asylum seekers. Some days they come in here and criticise the government and say we are too hard on asylum seekers. Some days they say the refugee convention does not matter at all. The Leader of the Opposition is on the public record as saying that. The shadow minister for immigration is on the public record as saying that. Some days they say it is pivotal. When they are in government they process people in places that are not signatories to the refugee convention. When they are in opposition apparently it is the foundation stone for all of their beliefs.

Ms Julie Bishop : Mr S peaker, on a point of order : the question was about the numerous policy contortions of the Prime Minister; it was not about the coalition's decade-long policy.

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The question was asked in a form that allows a truck to drive through it in response. It is not a question that, for the rest of question time, I will allow because of the way it was constructed. But, as I said earlier, on many previous occasions when questions are framed in this way they allow for a much wider response.

Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

During that exchange the Leader of the Opposition has interjected at me, 'Consistent over a decade.' At some point the Leader of the Opposition is going to have to start dealing with the facts in the national interest. The facts are these: when the Howard government was in office—and the Leader of the Opposition was a minister in that government—it processed people in Nauru when it was not a signatory to the refugee convention. A fact that cannot be denied. Now apparently the Leader of the Opposition says you can only process people in countries that are a signatory—a complete backflip and inconsistency, part of trashing the national interest in support of their political interest.

Then, of course, the Leader of the Opposition says, 'Oh, you must have legally-binding arrangements. It would be quite wrong not to have legally-binding arrangements.' The Leader of the Opposition is known to use very ugly words about people in election commitments. His own policy document at the election talked about assurances, not about legally binding—another completely sharp act of hypocrisy for them to pursue their narrow political interest. Then the Leader of the Opposition says he could not possibly sleep at night if people were not processed in a signatory country. Meanwhile he says he wants to tow boats back to Indonesia with no guarantees of treatment at all—another huge inconsistency. Why doesn't the Leader of the Opposition just get up and tell the truth? And the truth is he will do anything to prevent this government implementing the arrangement with Malaysia because he is afraid it will work, and he is dreaming of more boats coming to this country because he thinks it will serve his political interest.