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

It will not come as a shock to you, Senator Ronaldson, but I have not seen the letter. On the general issues that you raise, I say again that it is hard to take you seriously when you do not want to support legislation that can put a stop to the people-smuggling rings. If you are not prepared to vote in this chamber to put a stop to the people-smuggling rings, to take away the incentive for those rings to use Australia as a target, if you will not support that, do not come in here and think you have any credibility whatsoever to mount an argument about the plight of these people. With the way refugees were treated under the Howard government, when they were demonised in language and demonised in the way they were treated, when your own back bench forced a revolt on you to take children out of detention—