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

I seek leave to make a short statement.

Leave granted.

I thank the government. I want to respond briefly to Senator Lambie, and we would grant leave to the leader of the government to do the same. When Senator Cormann left this place, in the valedictory we had I spoke about the importance of containment of conflict, and I made this comment:

We fight here. There must be limits, there must be containment, because conflict without any limit risks destroying too much. It risks damaging the polity, the people, the community, the institution, too much.

And I would add to that today: it risks the safety of colleagues and the safety of Australians.

This is why Labor has been so critical of the Prime Minister's refusal to unequivocally condemn violence and violent extremists. It was an abject failure of leadership. What I would say to the government and to One Nation is: if you start a fire, it can quickly overwhelm us. I urge the government senators and the leader of the government to unequivocally condemn what One Nation has done on this occasion and I urge Senator Roberts to issue an apology in an unqualified manner, and I urge us all to have standards of behaviour, regardless of our differences, that reflect the need to ensure colleagues and individuals across this country are safe.