Tim Ayres (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Trade) Share this | Hansard source

Yes, Senator Cash, Minister Dutton at the time failed absolutely on NZYQ. In 2018, Mr Dutton ignored the legal advice that was provided to him. And why do you think he did that? Because there would have been the usual narrow, self-interested, partisan-interest consideration. Mr Dutton had a bit of a think about it and thought, 'Whose problem is this really? Somebody else's problem down the track. What's my job here? To position for myself.' That's what Mr Dutton did in 2018. That's what the Morrison government did in those sad sordid years of maladministration, of weak staffing, of underresourcing, of weak political leadership on these questions. That's what they did from 2019 to 2022. And we're about to see on full display in this chamber what happens when you get a group of right-wing political extremists with no regard for the national interest and a bunch of Trots cooking up a solution to this that they recognise as in their partisan interest.

What is proposed in the parliament here by the Albanese government is a measure which adds a set of additional tools in a sensible way that improve the character, the quality and the integrity of the migration system. What happens here is that we now have an extension where, according to Senator Birmingham and Senator Cash, it's not important. An additional 43 days before a Senate inquiry reports—that is time that is going to tick away while precisely nothing happens, because Senator Birmingham has lost the capacity— (Time expired)