Linda Reynolds (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In the 30 years I've been working in and around this building, Parliament House, I have never ever witnessed such endemic incompetence from any government, not once—not even close. There is no greater responsibility for any federal government, as I know as a former defence minister, than the security of our nation and the safety of all Australians. It is a complete failure of national leadership and utterly unconscionable that our Prime Minister chose to flee overseas instead of staying to fix his mess.

Labor have demonstrated time and time again they are incapable of acting quickly or decisively. The government should have prepared draft legislation the moment the likelihood of the High Court's decision became clear to them, which was in June of this year. If they had, we could have passed legislation last week in this place and in the House this Monday, before any of these criminals were released onto our streets, a third of them in Western Australia. After this negligence, it took them another week to cobble together the grossly inadequate bill they presented yesterday morning, the Migration Amendment (Bridging Visa Conditions) Bill 2023. The result was the inevitable trainwreck that unfolded this week, with Peter Dutton saving the government and the Australian people from themselves.

In WA, police commissioner Blanch and the Premier have made it very clear we still don't know the consequences for our state. We don't know how many of these criminal detainees were released from the Yongah Hill detention centre in Northam, which houses the very worst of the very worst. We don't even know how they will be monitored in our streets. Western Australia deserves so much better from both of these Labor governments.