Bridget McKenzie (Victoria, National Party, Shadow Minister for Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Development) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you very much. The collective Greens don't appreciate that we are all elected here as individual senators, and the contingency motion I am speaking to recognises that. Despite the chamber voting previously on another senator's denial of the ability to speak, that does not deny me my right to get up here as the Leader of the National Party in the Senate and call out the Labor Party—the government—and the Greens for shutting down debate again and not allowing me to make a statement in the interests of my constituents, my political party and non-Labor government senators on this side.

What we have seen from this government on the ISIS bride returns is appalling. An urgent debate needs to occur. The opposition has done the right thing and developed a private senator's bill to address the concerns of everyday Australians about ISIS brides and their nearly adult children returning to our shores. This is actually an issue of concern. What we have seen from the government, in their impotent, flaccid, pathetic response to this issue is of concern. We have had Australia's foreign and minister in this chamber this week, with hands up, saying, 'There was nothing I could do.' The Prime Minister said, 'If you're an Australian, you have a right to a passport.' No, you do not. Under the Australian Passport Act 2005, the government and the minister have the right to suspend the application of a passport, refuse to issue a passport under certain grounds and, indeed, cancel an issued passport under certain grounds.

Having been a minister who's had to make tough decisions and has gone against departmental advice at times because it's not in the national interest, ministerial discretion is there for a reason. Governments are not instruments of the department. We've been elected. You have a duty that you swore to do, whether you made the affirmation or swore on your holy book with the Governor-General, to uphold our constitution and to act in the national interest. You do not take—