Kate Lundy (ACT, Australian Labor Party, Minister Assisting for Industry and Innovation) Share this | Hansard source

Once again, the premise of this sort of question has to be rejected entirely because it is based on the fact that the opposition will not support the expert working panel's recommendations to us about how to manage the arrivals. I think it is well understood that there is considerable volatility in the international circumstances that drive people to flee. But we are dealing with a coalition that voted the Malaysia arrangement down. They voted it down. So to stand there and ask questions about the rate of arrivals and relating to the budget associated with the high cost of managing that rate of arrivals shows that they are still prepared to score political points over both the national interest and the lives of people who are conned by people smugglers to pay their life savings to cross dangerous seas. What a shameful opposition you are.