Paul Scarr (Queensland, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Multicultural Engagement) Share this | Hansard source

It's another day and it's another rushed amendment to the Migration Act we see from the incompetent Albanese Labor government, another example of the Albanese Labor government's total mismanagement of the immigration portfolio. It is absolutely astounding. You couldn't make this stuff up, it's so bad, so incompetent.

So what did we actually see today? We had senior members of the coalition frontbench, senior opposition shadow ministers, invited to a 20-minute briefing this morning where they were given notice of a bill to amend the Migration Act that's going to be introduced today and that needs to be passed before Easter. A 20-minute briefing on this new piece of legislation! And you know what? When they turned up at the briefing, they saw that the draft was date-stamped last Friday. Can you believe it? So the date stamp on this bill was last Friday. Were they given the briefing last Friday? No. Were they given the briefing last Saturday? No. What about Sunday? I'm sure they would have worked over the weekend in the national interest. Were they given the briefing Monday? No. They were given the briefing this morning. It is a total lack of respect.

The other disturbing thing about this fiasco is that it's such a ramshackle process. How can this place properly consider this legislation when given less than one day's notice? It is an absolute lack of competence, a lack of scrutiny and, once again, a lack of transparency from the Albanese Labor government.