Murray Watt (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Minister for the Environment and Water) Share this | Hansard source

The legislation that Senator Shoebridge was referring to, before he tried to blame the Labor Party for rallies of extremists over the weekend, makes targeted amendments to the Migration Act to expressly exclude procedural fairness from applying to the exercise of powers that deal with the taking of action in relation to third-country-reception arrangements. As to why the government is introducing this legislation, the point at principle that we're adopting is if someone does not have a right to a visa in Australia then that person should leave. That is the situation in relation to the NZYQ cohort, as it's become known. That is the basis of that legislation. That principle—that if you don't have a right to a visa in Australia you should leave Australia—is the basic principle of any functioning migration system. But it would appear that the Greens party does not support that principle, that someone without a right to a visa should leave Australia.