QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE: TAKE NOTE OF ANSWERS
Senator SHOEBRIDGE (New South Wales) (15:22): I move: That the Senate take note of answers given by the Minister for the Environment and Water (Senator Watt) in relation to questions without notice I asked today on migration. You can see a lot about Labor in how they respond when they're put under the smallest amount of pressure on migration. The Greens got up and asked Labor: 'Why do you keep cutting deals with the coalition and Peter Dutton on migration?
Why did you do a grubby deal with Peter Dutton to send people to a prison camp in Nauru? Why did you cut a deal with the coalition earlier this year to put in Trump-style travel bans and cut off, for example, people coming from Iran in the middle of a war? And why are you now looking to cut a deal with Angus Taylor on your migration?
Why do you keep running off to the right in fear of the hard far-right? Why do you keep doing that?' You know what really shows Labor? It's this.
When the Greens ask why Labor keeps cutting deals with the right, do you know what Labor does? They don't come out and attack Pauline Hanson. They don't come out and attack the racist, grubby politics of One Nation.
They come out and attack the Greens for daring to ask the question, for daring to point out exactly where Labor's migration policy has taken them. Ask yourself this. There was the grubby deal with Peter Dutton to send more people, against their will and with no connection to Nauru, to the appalling conditions in Nauru.
They cut that deal with Peter Dutton, if you remember that. Then they ran an election campaign saying: 'Oh, my God, you've got to save us from Dutton! The world needs to be saved from Dutton.' That was after they dealt with Dutton and they invited him into the tent and sucked up his politics on cruelty to people going to Nauru.
Then people asked: what's next? I'll tell you what was next. They then reached out again to the coalition because the coalition and Labor are both running to the drum of Pauline Hanson and, earlier this year, they put in Trump-style travel bans.
What's happened with those Trump-style travel bans that Labor put in? We now see the coalition and One Nation saying that they want to use Labor's legislation to put a complete ban on anyone travelling here from Lebanon, for example. There are a quarter of a million Australians whose heritage is traced back to Lebanon.
Labor has given One Nation the legislative pathway to say that anyone whose family is in Lebanon can't bring their parents here, can't bring their loved ones, can't bring your brother or your sister here. Who gave One Nation that weapon? I'll tell you who gave One Nation that weapon.
Labor, like they always do. I remember back in the last parliament when we were trying to resist the latest extreme attack on migration coming from Labor. I remember some of the discussions with the coalition.
The coalition said, 'We can't resist this because this is meaner than we could ever get through ourselves as government.' The ones who truly get through the ugly, nastiest extent when it comes to punching down on migrants are the Labor Party. Watch Labor in play. Watch how Labor is doing.
When anyone challenges Labor's race to the bottom and their latest grubby attack on migrants, they don't actually reach out and try to confront the rhetoric that's coming from One Nation, the racist rhetoric from One Nation, the ugly rhetoric from One Nation, the misdirection from One Nation where they're taking people's legitimate grievances about housing and jobs and concern for their material security and weaponizing it against migrants instead of One Nation's billionaire backers.
When did you last hear Labor say that One Nation is actually distracting from the real causes of people's insecurity? The real causes are the Gina Rineharts and the billionaire backers who are trying to misdirect people's legitimate anger about the one per cent gouging while everyone else suffers and misdirect that to migration and attack migrants. When did you last see Labor make that argument?
Never. When Labor's challenged on migration, they never push back against One Nation. They never push back against the coalition.
They cut deals with that mob and they turn their attack against the left in politics who actually have some principles in this place. They do it time and time again. The icing on the cake with Labor is when you ask them about why they have comprehensively failed after what seems like forever but is about five years in government, why they have comprehensively failed on housing, why they've comprehensively failed on wages and wages are going backwards and why people are feeling more insecure, they say, 'It's all the Greens' fault.
It's all the Greens' fault.' Well, Labor's been in government. Labor has allowed One Nation to rise, and Labor continues to pump their tyres. Question agreed to.