Glenn Sterle (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I was actually in a committee and trying to discuss aviation safety in this country, which I do put great importance on. So I will not apologise—through you, Mr Acting Deputy President—for having the nation's travelling safety at heart before this frivolous MPI.

I just want to quote those words from Senator Fifield:

The Gillard government's failure to secure Australia's borders and refusal—

this is the key, if we are going to get some truth out here—

to implement effective and humane policies to deny people smugglers the product they sell.

Most times I am proud to be a Western Australian; in fact, nearly all the time I am proud to be a Western Australian. I am a first-generation Australian—my parents were both from overseas, my father from war-torn Europe and my mother from war-torn England. My father came out under similar circumstances to those in which we see people coming to Australia now: fleeing conflict. But I just want to say this: he was invited to this country. He came to this country in the late forties, after the war, with his five sisters and his mother and father—a brother was lost in the war—and he was so proud to make this country his home. He was so proud that he was afforded the opportunity to be given a brand-new life in a wonderful country such as Australia. But I am so darned—I was going to say 'damned', but I will not—embarrassed when I hear people absolutely attack at every opportunity people—