Ian Macdonald (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I will not take all of that interjection, but I will say to Senator Hanson-Young with, perhaps, not a lot of respect: you are the people smuggler's friend. The people smugglers did their trade in Australia because the Australian Greens kept encouraging them. They kept saying to them, 'Come here and we'll look after your people. We'll give you a product to sell. Charge the $15,000 per person, put it in your pocket and we'll support you when you get to Australia.' It is absolutely disgusting. I have never been more disgusted about a policy issue in the Australian parliament than I am about the way the Labor Party and the Greens support the people smugglers taking $20,000 off supposed 'poor' refugees to come into Australia because they knew that once you got here you would be fine; whereas genuine refugees, who have been living in squalid refugee camps around the world for years are still waiting because people were allowed to jump the queue, thanks to the Greens and the Labor Party. I do not blame anyone trying to get to Australia. We are the promised land. We are a wonderful country. We are a very rich country. I can understand why people anywhere in the world would want to get into Australia, but we have rules. As John Howard said many years ago, 'We will decide who comes to our country and way in which they come here.'

Opposition senators interjecting—