QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE

Senator WONG (South Australia—Minister for Foreign Affairs and Leader of the Government in the Senate) (14:18): The problem with that question is that it's a question that's based on a few bumper stickers, and it's also a question that's based on untruths. It is not correct to say that our target is as you suggest. It is not correct to make the assertions you're making about different areas of policy.

I don't know if you've actually engaged with any Pacific leaders or looked at the remarks of the President of Palau after we announced our policy, but I'd invite you to do that. I know it doesn't line up with your narrative, but he outlined his understanding of why this was an ambitious target. The challenge is twofold.

The first challenge is the Greens political party's position that you can just make things true by saying them without actually having to deliver them. The second problem is that you don't understand that government is actually trying to govern for the whole of the country, actually trying to govern for everybody. You think, just because we don't agree with you, that that is because somehow we've been captured.

Actually, it's just that we don't agree with you about what governing for the country means. This prime minister and this party and this government—we govern for the country. The PRESIDENT: Senator Waters, first supplementary?