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

I'm perfectly relaxed, President. On the day of the judgement, the government said it would wait but, instead, it didn't take its own advice—it didn't do as it said it would do—it just went on and released individual, after individual, after individual, who it was known posed a threat to the Australian community. In this place, and in the other place, we saw the government face questions from Mr Dutton, from Senator Cash and from Senator Paterson about the risks that these individuals posed, but the government couldn't stick to its own decision; it couldn't detain them and await the statement of reasons. Instead, it proceeded to release them.

Then what did we see from this government, that had failed in its handling of the case and had failed on the day of, and on the days following, the statement of reasons? We saw them bring legislation to this parliament—legislation that, again, reflected calls the opposition had made for the government to look, where these individuals had been released, at how they could be tracked and followed, and what steps could be taken. What did the government do? It released the legislation at breakfast time. At 8 am the opposition were given briefings on that legislation. And what did we do in response to it? We went away and had a look to see whether we could make it tougher. The government went out publicly, and said, 'This is as tough as it gets!' That was at breakfast time. Guess what? By lunchtime they had accepted all the amendments from the opposition—all six amendments from the opposition to make the legislation tougher were accepted by lunchtime by the Albanese government.

So they failed in the case's handling, failed in the immediate response and failed in the first package of legislation. We're now having to work through further packages of legislation with this government. We are taking the diligence and time to try to ensure that it is done thoroughly. It is so critical for the opposition to keep a check on this government, because they're not up to it! And they've shown they're not up to it time and time again. Minister Giles and Minister O'Neil clearly demonstrated that they're not up to it, which is why Prime Minister Albanese should at last show some leadership and sack these hopeless ministers—

Opposition senators interjecting—