Richard Di Natale (Victoria, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

My question is for the Minister representing the Prime Minister, Senator Brandis. The Prime Minister today described the immigration minister as 'thoughtful and compassionate'. Does the minister believe that it is thoughtful and compassionate to claim that the former Liberal Party Prime Minister, the late Malcolm Fraser, made mistakes in welcoming Lebanese Muslims into Australia in the 1970s because a small number of their children or grandchildren may have committed a crime? Minister, how is it thoughtful or compassionate to describe generations of hardworking immigrants, who have made an enormous contribution to this multicultural nation of ours, as a 'mistake'?