Simon Birmingham (SA, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

See, the problem is you haven't learned any lessons. There's no contrition. There's no admission. There's no acceptance of responsibility. This government won't take responsibility for any of its failures. It's amazing. You'd think with ministers as hapless as Ministers Giles and O'Neill they would take responsibility for the failures. You'd think those ministers would be gone, now or at least over the summer period, and the government could reset itself off of that disaster. But, no, instead, the government is trying to act in a state of denial, pretend that it's being tough when ultimately it has been led every step of the way in its legislation, its amendments and its proposals—the preventive detention regime has been proposed by Mr Dutton and the opposition. The only leadership that has been shown since the High Court case was handed down has come from Mr Dutton, Senator Paterson, Senator Cash, Mr Tehan and others, who have sought to make sure that the government acts in ways that is necessary. And, even right now—