Clare O'Neil (Hotham, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Home Affairs) | Hansard source

Let's see if we can lift the standards a bit. That was 15 minutes of just about the greatest incompetent drivel and hypocrisy that I've ever heard in this parliament. The way that this important national security problem for our country is being relentlessly politicised by those opposite is disgraceful.

I want to speak a little bit first about the substance of the matter, the government's NZYQ response, and I want to start with some home truths, because the mistruths that are being told on that side of the chamber about this case are very, very important and, importantly, very, very wrong. The first thing I want to say is: let's just be very clear about one important point here. Our government did not want these people released from detention, and the proof is in the pudding there, because, when we had the power to keep these people in detention, that's exactly what we did. That is why all these people were in a form of detention when NZYQ was brought down.

The High Court had a case before it brought by NZYQ, and I will remind the parliament at this point that the reason that NZYQ was still in our country is that the Leader of the Opposition, who sits opposite me here, took a personal ministerial intervention and lifted the bar, allowing NZYQ to apply for a protection visa, which he then proceeded to do. But that's not the only culpability of the Leader of the Opposition here. Do you know what would have really helped with NZYQ? It would have really helped if some attempts had been made to remove this person from the country before Minister Giles and I started to get onto that part of the problem. We would not have had an NZYQ case if the Leader of the Opposition had just done his job and made that remote effort to approach other countries and remove NZYQ from the country, as a good minister would have done and as Minister Giles and I did.

The High Court made a decision that our government did not agree with. We went before the High Court and we argued against the decision they made. But governments do need to manage changes in the law that are made by the High Court of Australia. That includes a Liberal government, a Labor government or government of any stripe. So what does a good government do in the face of these decisions?

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