Christopher Back (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I will, nevertheless, with your concurrence, Deputy President, conclude—from going to the height to the trough. The trough of course was the curtailment of the debate on the Family Law Legislation Amendment (Family Violence and Other Measures) Bill. That debate started out robustly. The contributions from all sides were fantastic on an issue of tremendous importance to Australian families, particularly to children affected in the circumstances of the break-up of a marriage. To see that debate guillotined and to see what may well have been very good amendments moved by Senator Wright, whose area of professional expertise this was before she came into the Senate, will stand for me for a long time as the low point in the democratic process of this place. I will conclude by supporting my own deputy leader, the shadow Attorney-General, Senator Brandis, in supporting the Deterring People Smuggling Bill 2011 and by hoping that the government sees sense, accepts the advice of our leadership and gets on with a proper long-term solution to the people-smuggling and asylum-seeker problem.