Lisa Singh (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary to the Shadow Attorney General) Share this | Hansard source

I am someone in the Labor Party—and I'm not the only person in the Labor Party—who has taken a very, very active and compassionate role in relation to the rights and the plight of refugees and asylum seekers for years. I will not have the Greens come into this place and pretend that they are holier than thou with their moral virtues, that they are somehow going to resolve this awful situation when they simply have no power to do so. Moving a motion in this place is not going to resolve that. No matter how many tweets, Facebook posts and media stunts you do they are not going to resolve that, so grow up! Grow up, and start to work out how to create good policy. The dark green taint of Senator McKim gives Senator Richard Di Natale absolutely no support whatsoever. I'm sure he will soon realise that.

I think that the Greens, to be honest, are trying somehow to remain relevant in a time when they have become more and more irrelevant. The more they've moved away from the trees and tried to move into mainstream politics they have failed. So the only way that they continue to remain relevant is by wedging the progressive side of politics—by wedging the very people who have decency, who have humanity and who have care for people who sought out our protection, who sought asylum.

I am so sick of it. So many people on this side are sick of it. Why don't you actually attack the government? It's the government that is treating people so badly. It's the government that can change its policies. That's what we do! We actually address the fact that it's the government failing these people and that it's the government that needs to find solutions. Why don't you go to New Zealand and talk to new Labour Prime Minister Ardern about her offer and ensure that Malcolm Turnbull takes it up? No, you attack the Labor Party. That's the Greens. That's what happens when the Greens run out of ideas about how to continue to increase their vote numbers. Let's face it, we know their dishonest approach when it comes to this debate.

Well, here we are, in a situation that is a calamity. It is indeed a catastrophe, and I do fear for the lives of those men on Manus Island. I fear for their safety and I fear for their lives. And I will continue, day in, day out, to try to ensure that the government moves on this issue and settles these refugees so that this terrible situation comes to an end.