Stephen Conroy (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy) Share this | Hansard source

The person who abandoned John Howard's policy is named Scott Morrison. On the weekend he had every opportunity to tell the truth about how those opposite intended to deliver on their policy. And he refused. As I was saying, when Mr Keenan comes to turning these boats back around it will be sending Indonesian flagged boats with an Indonesian crew back to the Indonesian port from which they left. That is the stated policy, except that Mr Morrison will not back that up. Senator Abetz will not back that up. Even the Indonesian government is saying, in black and white, 'That it is not going to happen; not now and not ever'. There is no towing back into territorial waters, but Mr Morrison had the chance to put some substance into Senator Abetz's question and he refused. He ran away like the coward that he is.