Barnaby Joyce (Queensland, National Party, Leader of The Nationals in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

I rise not to actually condemn a lot of what the Greens have said. I think the Greens are claiming responsibility for the legislation in relation to the Abel Tasman. There is an ad in the paper today that says they are responsible for that. But I will reflect on some of what Senator Di Natale just said, that this legislation will force kids into a catatonic state, that we are delivering them to a war zone, that indefinite detention leaves people damaged and scarred, that it is a mental illness factory. He also quoted the Hippocratic oath, that the first job is to do no harm. The reality is that if the Greens really wanted to, they could stop this. If they were fair dinkum, they could stop it. They know full well that all they have to do is walk down to the Prime Minister's office and say, 'If you go forward with this, we will withdraw our support for the government' and it would stop immediately. It would finish it then. They know that. This is all hyperbole. This is the utter pitch of hypocrisy because the Greens have the power at their disposal to stop it and they choose not to. They will give a wonderful dissertation about the evils, but they know they have the element at their disposal to stop it. Why don't they? Because their love of the position of power is greater than their desire to stop this process. That is the reality. That is the absolute hypocrisy of what they are doing here.

Senator Di Natale interjecting—

Because they are so offended by this, they bring up Cubbie Station. They are now equating Cubbie Station with the litany of issues they have brought forward. That is how pathetic they have become. They are totally and utterly compromised. They are interjecting because I have hit a nerve. They have the capacity to stop this and the Australian Greens choose not to. If they go right out this door right now to those listening and call a press conference saying, 'We will withdraw our support for this government unless this stops,' this will stop today.

Senator Di Natale interjecting—

Senator Di Natale is talking about Cubbie Station. The trouble is that I am not actually part of the government. I was not in a photograph with Prime Minister Julia Gillard with a piece of wattle in my lapel signing an agreement to basically form the government—that was the Australian Greens in that photo. It was the Australian Greens and the Australian Labor Party making their decision, observed by Mr Tony Windsor and Mr Rob Oakeshott—the member for Lyne and the member for New England. They are the government. So we have the Greens complaining about themselves. So how does one take into account statements like, 'It's a war zone' and 'It's indefinite detention'? I agree: it is. It is indefinite detention. There is no doubt about it—this is indefinite detention. There is no doubt that it will leave some people damaged and scarred. There is no doubt that it will force kids in some instances to a catatonic state. There is no doubt that those who are capable of talking about and are proficient in mental illness say quite rightly that it will have the capacity to induce that. There is no doubt about that. And there is no doubt that the Greens could stop it if they wished to.