James McGrath (Queensland, Liberal National Party, Shadow Assistant Minister to the Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Hansard source

This Labor government is an omnishambles. It is an omnishambles on steroids because what we have seen under this Labor government is a government that is prepared to sit around the cabinet table but which is not prepared to take the tough decisions to keep Australians safe, because the Commonwealth government has one job. Its main job is to keep Australia safe and to keep Australians safe. But under this government, under this omnishambles-on-steroids government, we've seen released rapists, murderers, paedophiles and a contract killer. So the question you would put to Australia is: Do you feel safer today than you did a month ago or 18 months ago? Because this Labor government is continuing in the 'proud' tradition—and I use 'proud' in inverted commas—of previous Labor governments of being weak at protecting Australians when it comes to securing our borders. Remember that it was under the previous Labor that we had over 50,000 illegal arrivals come to this country by boat. We had thousands die at sea because of the previous Labor government, and now we have cabinet ministers whose arrogance is only exceeded by their incompetence. Their incompetence and their failure to understand how to run their departments and how to keep Australians safe has now put at risk Australians.

That High Court decision was telegraphed back in June of this year. Considering the importance of this particular case, any responsible minister on top of their brief would have prepared for all options, but not this arrogant government that believes it knows better than anyone else, not this incompetent government that failed to prepare to protect Australians, not this omnishambles of a government. It is a government that last week attacked Peter Dutton. It attacked him personally. Peter Dutton, a police officer—