Ian Macdonald (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Those in the chamber and those who might be listening to this on broadcast might almost agree with Senator Gallacher, but I will just remind people of the history. Senator Gallacher complains about a police commissioner who was sacked on 19 July 2013. I ask people to remember July 2013. That was the very time that Senator Gallacher, Senator Conroy, Senator Wong and Senator Carr were in a government that was doing a deal with the nation of Nauru. If it was so bad, why did Mr Rudd and Senator Conroy agree to the deal? They did. They sent these boat people to Nauru. The evidence at this and other inquiries has clearly shown that it was all done in such a rush because Mr Rudd, Senator Conroy and others realised the political and voting impact of their failure on border protection and so they grabbed at any straw to try to recover some political momentum. In doing that, they did the deal with Manus. According to Senator Gallacher, they did it at the time that the Nauruan government was actually sacking the police commissioner who Senator Gallacher is so worried about.

Senator Gallacher, if you are worried about it now, why weren't you worried about it then? Why didn't you say to Mr Rudd, 'Hang on. We can't do a deal with this country because they have just sacked the police commissioner and they don't want the judge to remain'? They made the arrangement. Senator Conroy was a senior member of the cabinet that made that deal. Yet those opposite have the hide to come in here now and complain about something that they put in place at the time that, according to them, the Nauruan government was wrongfully, illegally and undemocratically sacking their police commissioner. If it is bad now, it was bad when they did the deal.

The Greens political party are equally complicit because they supported the Labor Party in most of the decisions made at the time—