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

As I say, this government has legislated in very quick time to make sure that Border Force and the AFP have the powers they need to monitor, impose curfews on and apply electronic bracelets to the people who have been released from detention as a result of a High Court order. Again I repeat: that stands in great contrast to the actions of your own Senator Smith who called for a convicted paedophile to be released from community detention without any monitoring, without any bracelets and without any actions whatsoever. We're actually trying to be responsible here and protect community safety, while you're out there applying one standard to the government and a completely different standard to your own people. When are you going to be consistent about this? If you're actually tough on these matters, then the same standards should apply to your own people, rather than having letters written to immigration ministers asking for convicted paedophiles to be released into the community without any monitoring whatsoever. We stand by our record and stand by our tough laws.