Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the chamber. I make this point: there are not many occasions in this place where we are confronted with hundreds of Australians dying whilst we are sitting here, day by day. The fact that the government failed to act on multiple warnings—I think it is demonstrably the case they failed to do so—has caused enormous and tragic consequences. This minister should be held to account by this chamber. It is a basic principle of ministerial accountability. We move this motion and we ask for support from the crossbench for all of the paragraphs in the interests of that accountability. I flag here that we will continue to press ministerial accountability because Minister Colbeck has demonstrably failed to do what he ought to have done as a minister of the Crown.