Murray Watt (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Hansard source

I'm not going to accept any proposition like that from you. I have on several occasions now outlined that what the government is seeking to do here is to address a situation which has arisen from a decision of the High Court. We respect the decisions of our courts and we deal with their implications. We have, as quickly as we possibly can, introduced legislation to deal with this situation. The opposition has indicated that they believe certain amendments are necessary to that legislation. We will do the utmost we can to have this legislation passed as quickly as we can, and that obviously requires working with the opposition to consider those amendments, because the Greens Party has demonstrated that they have no interest whatsoever in working with the government to address this situation. We don't believe that it is acceptable to let that situation continue if we're doing the most we possibly can for the safety of the Australian community.