Senator WATT (Queensland—Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry and Minister for Emergency Management) (14:00): Thank you, Senator Paterson. I am aware of those remarks that were made by Justice Gleeson in the High Court. I'm also aware of some remarks that Senator Paterson made in this chamber the other day while Senator Wong was answering a question. He interjected and made the point that the High Court's ruling overturned 20 years of precedent. It seems that at least at the time Senator Paterson made those interjections, he was aware that a High Court decision had been in place with a clear ruling on this matter of law for 20 years and that the decision that ultimately was received by the full bench of the High Court overturned those 20 years of precedents. For Senator Paterson to come in now and pretend that he had a crystal ball that this decision was going to end up the way it did is completely disingenuous and goes against the comments he made earlier in the week. In addition to that, what we also know is the opposition leader, Mr Dutton, knew for a number of years that this was an issue when he was the Minister for Home Affairs, and he did not do anything to address the issue either. Our urgent legislation that we introduced today— The PRESIDENT: Senator Paterson, on a point of order? Senator Paterson: It's on direct relevance: the questions was about comments that Justice Gleeson made in June this year. Last time I checked, Peter Dutton was not in government in June this year—you were. The PRESIDENT: The minister is being relevant to your question. Senator WATT: It's interesting that the opposition is so defensive of Mr Dutton's record as the Minister for Home Affairs. He was also the home affairs minister who presided over a completely broken migration system, which was exposed in the Nixon report. Senator Birmingham: President, my point of order is on direct relevance. Clearly the minister is not being directly relevant to the specifics of the question Senator Paterson asked. President, I'd urge you to engage more frequently when a minister is so directly pivoting to comments on the opposition or on matters that are extraneous to the specifics of the question and to more proactively draw the minister back to the question that has been asked. The PRESIDENT: Senator Birmingham, I think I do respond, and I was about to respond to Minister Watt when I saw you stand, so I took your point of order. Minister Watt, I refer you back to the question. Senator WATT: It has just been drawn to my attention that in fact Senator Paterson is misrepresented the remarks of Justice Gleeson as well. Justice Gleeson's comments in June did not indicate the likely judgement of the High Court. She said, 'In a sense what you seem to be saying is that his position is utterly hopeless, that there is nothing that could be done to ready him from removal.' That is far from that the High Court full bench was going to end up making the decision it made. Notwithstanding that, we have produced urgent legislation within a very short time, and we invite the opposition to work with us to get it done. The PRESIDENT: Senator Paterson, first supplementary?