Ben Small (Forrest, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

You don't know. I'll take interjections from you guys all day. The reality is that the government runs the country. You can't hide from the scrutiny, because the Prime Minister himself declared to the Australian people at the last election that he would be the Prime Minister that turned up, that took responsibility. He wouldn't duck and weave and hide. Instead, what have we got? We've got obfuscation. We've got secret meetings occurring in Sydney where the Minister for Home Affairs booted out the departmental representatives. Why would you do that? Why would you kick the public servants out if they're the ones that are responsible for administering these processes, as you keep saying? Then we find, many months later through Senate scrutiny, that there are handwritten notes referring to a 'TB', and no-one in the Public Service can possibly think who 'TB' might have been! It just so happens, of course, that the Minister for Home Affairs was sitting in a meeting with Save the Children and Dr Jamal, who later went to Syria with some 35 passports stuffed in his pocket. No, there was nothing to see here. There was no reason, absolutely no reason, this guy had to be booted out of the meeting! This is gold-standard transparency from the Albanese government, isn't it?

There are 18,000 individuals on the watchlist. We've got reports, after Bondi, that the AFP and security agencies are underresourced to deal with these sorts of radicalised individuals, but this lot want to allow more back into Australia. We say that the first job of government is to protect Australians and to keep them safe. We say that the gate should be shut. Every avenue should be pursued to keep Australians safe, and nothing should stand in the way of Australian national security. If there are deficiencies in the law in this country that leave our citizens unprotected or vulnerable, those loopholes should be closed.

That is why, earlier today, just hours ago in this chamber, we sought to move a private member's bill to do exactly that—to shut the gate and keep these people out of our country. Instead, the government used its numbers to shut down any debate on the issue. 'Move on; nothing to see here.' It's typical. They talk a big game, but when the rubber hits the road they are completely missing in action. It's why Australians today have a lesser standard of living and are less protected than they were under conservative governments. The assistant minister was quite right. We have been rewarded with more years in government since World War II than any other political party because we do believe the first job of government is to keep Australians safe.

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