Katy Gallagher (ACT, Australian Labor Party, Minister for the Public Service) Share this | Hansard source

Today ends the lecturing from those opposite about acting in the national interest and keeping Australia safe, because we see today the opposition, who talk big on all of these issues, siding with the Greens political party to defer a matter that our advice and our advisers have told us is important to get done. So let there be no more lectures from those opposite, no more trying to wind up the scare campaigns and no more accusations of us not working in the national interest, because we see a clear example today of the opposition not acting in the national interest. That is on Senator Cash, Senator Birmingham and, of course, Mr Dutton. If you look at some of the reforms that we've had to bring in, it's because of a broken system that we inherited. We've had the Nixon review, the Richardson review and others: all of those reviews are a damning indictment of the Leader of the Opposition and his carriage of these matters as minister responsible for Australia's migration and immigration system.

I can't count the number of times I've heard those opposite lecture us about needing to move quickly to address loopholes, making sure that we're keeping the community safe and putting us in the strongest legal position, and that ends today. You have no credibility on that anymore. The Department of Home Affairs last night at the hearing on the bill said: 'This legislation is one which we believe is a significant issue to resolve within our migration system for its broader integrity.' That was the evidence provided to the opposition. What we've seen today is the opposition siding with the Greens to kick this off—to not deal with it.

It is straightforward. They know that, in the end—I imagine, unless they're going to surprise us even further—they will support this bill, but they want to kick it off for another three to four weeks. I'm not sure for what purpose—perhaps we'll see in that three to four weeks.