Sarah Hanson-Young (SA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

by leave—How cowardly! The Rudd Labor government, who came to power on a promise to introduce a more humane, fair and transparent immigration detention system, make changes to their policy and then they are not honest about the condemnation that that policy change has had internationally as well as domestically. They deny that they detain children, despite the fact that we know that they do on Christmas Island. They pretend that they do not breach international obligations that Australia has signed, yet we know that they do.

You are living under a total cloud of denial. This is the Rudd government, who promised a more humane approach, who promised to treat vulnerable people with respect and dignity, who condemned the locking up of children, who condemned indefinite detention and who said that detention would be a last resort. All of the seven principles, bar one, which was keeping mandatory detention, that the Minister for Immigration and Citizenship announced last year have gone out the window—because we are in the lead-up to an election. It is totally shameful. If you are going to change your policies, be gutless and spineless, and not stand up for what is right, at least be honest about it and stop pretending you are otherwise.

Question put:

That the motion (Senator Hanson-Young’s) be agreed to.