Barry O'Sullivan (Queensland, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

A coalition of all the free nations, all the important free nations—Canada, Italy, France, Britain, the United States and ourselves—have for once, in my view, moved responsibly, in a prompt fashion. We responded early with humanitarian support, where we provided these people with the basics of life: food, water and limited access to shelter. Now we are confronting the issue of being able to equip them so they can respond to defend their lives. It is as simple as that.

Yet there are those who want us to debate this to the death. There are those who want to bring our parliament, both the House of Representatives and this Senate, to a standstill for days, when they know full well that that opportunity would turn into an absolute political free-for-all. It does not matter how many days, weeks or months we spend in this place; I have a sneaking suspicion that I will never agree with the policies that you pursue. For saving the lives of people, you should be making the argument about increasing refugee intakes in this particular circumstance and keeping them alive long enough—