Nick McKim (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

They are criminals, as Senator Whish-Wilson says, and they should be locked up in secure Australian prisons where they can do no further harm to Australia and Australians.

Senator Heffernan interjecting—

What the government is prepared to do, including Senator Heffernan—

Senator Heffernan interjecting—

What? Buy them a plane ticket and send them back to Syria? Is that really the best we can do? I think we can do better than this legislation. The Greens and I think that we can do better than bringing this legislation on in the dead of night for a debate in this place only scant minutes after the legislation arrived here and only scant hours after crucial amendments were tabled in the House of Representatives while the minister was on his feet. That was the first the broader Australian people, and certainly the Greens, had seen of those amendments. Those amendments, as I said, according to the government, go directly to the issue of whether or not this legislation is likely to be struck down in the High Court. I saw the debate in another place today. Labor has not even seen the Solicitor-General's advice—