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

They didn't have a caucus. Maybe Labor didn't never didn't have a caucus. Maybe the caucus hasn't had a chance. Again, I wouldn't know.

But the point here is that this is not the Labor Party legislating because they're scared of the impact on the community. This is the Labor Party legislating because they're scared of Mr Dutton and the Murdoch press. That's what's going on here. And I've never seen a government allow itself to be dictated to by an opposition, even to the extent of these mythical amendments that have been flagged but not yet circulated, which allegedly we're going to debate tonight and which the opposition has forced onto the Labor Party. I've never seen that in my two decades plus in politics: an opposition effectively becoming the government in such a short, terrible week in which we have dealt with this issue as a country.

There's been a lot of talk about community safety. Do you want to know what the real danger to our community is? It's legislation like this. Legislation like this is a danger to our community, because it is a couple of steps too far down the pathway to tyranny.