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

Thank you, Senator O'Neill, for the question. It seems that, currently, the biggest risk for community cohesion in Australia is the Liberal Party and Mr Peter Dutton. Every day we see this opposition led by Mr Dutton obsessed with ratcheting up division and anxiety in our community. Last week, one of his minions, Senator Paterson, was right in line, saluting and doing his job, rushing onto television and declaring a terrorist attack on the Canada-US border that didn't actually happen and wasn't a terrorist attack at all. He declared it a terrorist attack before the investigation had even established what had happened. It shows how desperate the Liberal Party is, under Mr Dutton, to ratchet up division and anxiety in our community that they would run out there at the drop of a hat declaring terrorist attacks that haven't actually happened and haven't been checked at all. Senator Paterson made these claims while, at the same time, raising questions about a visa process for those who are fleeing war zones which is exactly the same process as it was under the government he was a part of. We need to bring people together, not divide them. (Time expired.)