Clare O'Neil (Hotham, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I want to thank those who have made a contribution to this discussion, especially the member for Kennedy, who is making incredible sense over there, which is great to hear. Thank you so much for the contribution. On behalf of Labor, closing this debate, we abhor crime and violence, especially when it relates to gun violence, and that's why we have approached this debate with only one goal in mind—how we can keep Australians safe.

When we got a bill coming into the Senate that was a petty political wedge to make a political point about Labor, we decided to approach that bill in good faith and make a good law. So what we did was worked hard with the crossbench to make changes to that law so that, for the first time in this country, people who seriously run gun-trafficking operations can be put away in jail for life. The government actually supported those amendments. It is quite rare that we see this happen. Labor wanted to make a law that works, we got bipartisan support and it went through that other place.

I want members of parliament to be absolutely clear about what is going on here because we have agreement on new laws that will help make Australians safer. Instead of taking that agreement and making a good law that we could have in place in this country in a matter of a few minutes, the bloody-mindedness of the justice minister has taken hold. This is petty politics at its absolute lowest form. In the time that I have been involved in politics I have never seen someone so obviously put petty politics in the path of the community safety of Australians. I want to repeat that we could have a better law now or we could do what the justice minister wants us to do, which is to bring this parliament into deadlock over a law that everyone in this chamber agrees is very important. That is pathetic. It is absolutely pathetic.

I want to respond to one of the issues that the minister has raised in his contribution so far. He has said that Labor wants to support the status quo. Has the minister been asleep for this whole debate? That is completely and utterly wrong. What Labor wants is tough new sentencing for gun traffickers, because we don't want gun traffickers walking the streets; we want them in jail and, if necessary, in jail for life. The only thing that is standing in the path of this becoming Australian law in a matter of minutes is this minister here—this minister who is so willing to put petty politics ahead of the safety of the people that he professes to represent. This is disgraceful. It is a disgraceful use of time in this chamber.

We all know what's about to happen here. I just want to lay this out very clearly because I want people on the government side—the good people on that side of the House—to understand what it is they are about to come and vote for. They are about to come in here and vote for a bill that will send this parliament into deadlock. I want every person on the conservative side of politics who's listening to this right now to understand what this minister is making them do in front of their constituents. This minister is putting your votes in the path of tough new laws to stop gun traffickers and to put gun traffickers in jail for life. What's about to happen here is because of the minister's bloody-mindedness. We're going to vote a bill up to the other place and it's going to get rejected by the Senate, where it has been rejected three times already. This is pathetic. It is utterly pathetic. I don't know if there's a minister on the other side of the House who practices a form of politics which is as low as this.

We will not be supporting the amendment, as the minister knew we would not be supporting the amendment. Those amendments are not going to make Australians safer. We actually want to take a practical approach which is going to make good laws in this parliament. I only wish I could say the same of the minister and the government he represents.

See this speech in context