Slade Brockman (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Very lucky them! I wonder if they were informed about what was going on, Senator Scarr. So there were just the detainees and possibly other guests. Again, the next day they were driven to the airport, where they flew to the eastern states. That was under what security, what surveillance, what requirements for ensuring the safety of the Australian people? We really have no idea.

Let's go through the time line. The government was given warning that this decision could be made many, many months ago and did absolutely nothing. The High Court handed down its decision last Wednesday. My good friend Senator James Paterson, the shadow minister for home affairs, on Thursday, immediately after the decision was handed down, called for a legislated response. What did we hear from the government? Absolutely nothing. They had to wait for the High Court to deliver its full judgement in an indeterminate amount of time into the future, possibly months. Senator Watt in fact said, 'We're not a government that acts on decisions that haven't had reasons released.' So, according to Senator Watt, the government's immediate response was going to be to sit on its hands for the months, or at least many weeks—possibly months—it was going to take for the full judgement to be released by the High Court.