Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for his question. Of course the member, I believe, knows the answer. The answer in part lies in the fact that this parliament was called upon to respond to a High Court decision to put us in the same position that the former Howard government was when it came to refugee and asylum seeker issues. In response the member who asked the question came in and voted for more boats—voted for more boats! This joins just a welter of negativity from the opposition to undermine the nation's ability to deal with refugee and asylum seeker issues.

The opposition said no to the recommendations of the expert panel which the government has fully accepted. To the extent that we cannot implement all of those recommendations, it is because the opposition has said no and is standing in our way. The opposition said no to the Malaysia agreement, something that would have made a contribution sending a shock up the people-smuggling pipeline, but the opposition said no.

The Leader of the Opposition has been out with a document pointing to what he claims is an increase of 20,000 public servants and saying that he will cut those if he is ever Prime Minister. I urge him to look at the details, because many of those cuts would fall on agencies involved in security and border control. Then, of course, we have seen the opposition insult the Indonesian government. We have seen—

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