Senator GALLAGHER (Australian Capital Territory—Minister for the Public Service, Minister for Finance, Minister for Women, Manager of Government Business in the Senate and Vice-President of the Executive Council) (11:03): Look, I have listened to everybody and I understand some of the points that have been put forward, but this bill is urgent. The advice through the committee process was— Senator Cash: Scrutiny! Senator GALLAGHER: I note Senator Cash talks big on border protection, talks big on immigration but refuses to accept responsibility for the mess that we inherited, which a number of reviews have identified. Opposition senators interjecting— The ACTING DEPUTY PRESIDENT ( Senator Sterle ): Minister, just resume your seat. After the decency of people being listened to in silence, I can't hear the minister and I am 10 feet away from her, Senator Cash. Senator GALLAGHER: Today ends the lecturing from those opposite about acting in the national interest and keeping Australia safe, because we see today the opposition, who talk big on all of these issues, siding with the Greens political party to defer a matter that our advice and our advisers have told us is important to get done. So let there be no more lectures from those opposite, no more trying to wind up the scare campaigns and no more accusations of us not working in the national interest, because we see a clear example today of the opposition not acting in the national interest. That is on Senator Cash, Senator Birmingham and, of course, Mr Dutton. If you look at some of the reforms that we've had to bring in, it's because of a broken system that we inherited. We've had the Nixon review, the Richardson review and others: all of those reviews are a damning indictment of the Leader of the Opposition and his carriage of these matters as minister responsible for Australia's migration and immigration system. I can't count the number of times I've heard those opposite lecture us about needing to move quickly to address loopholes, making sure that we're keeping the community safe and putting us in the strongest legal position, and that ends today. You have no credibility on that anymore. The Department of Home Affairs last night at the hearing on the bill said: 'This legislation is one which we believe is a significant issue to resolve within our migration system for its broader integrity.' That was the evidence provided to the opposition. What we've seen today is the opposition siding with the Greens to kick this off—to not deal with it. It is straightforward. They know that, in the end—I imagine, unless they're going to surprise us even further—they will support this bill, but they want to kick it off for another three to four weeks. I'm not sure for what purpose—perhaps we'll see in that three to four weeks. Senator Paterson: To have an inquiry. Senator Cash: Scrutiny! Senator GALLAGHER: Yeah, right. Okay. Yeah, yeah—tell another one. Tell another one. They'll kick it off for four weeks and not deal with it today. Our advisers say that it does need to be dealt with and that it should be dealt with in this sitting week. We provided briefings to you. We provided the committee inquiry to you so that you could have that opportunity. I don't think there was anything that came through the committee process that indicated any reason to delay this. We've been working to improve the integrity of the migration system for the last 18 months. As we know, the Parkinson review, the Richardson review and the Nixon review all indicated that we had inherited a system that was broken. Where there are issues identified, loopholes that need to close and powers that need to be strengthened, as a government we will work carefully and methodically to deal with those. We will present that to the chamber and, in this case to the opposition. We presumed—wrongly, it seems—that they would want to work with us in the national interest to strengthen our security and our immigration system. We believed a mature opposition—and, perhaps again, that was our mistake—would actually work with us on this to deal with it quickly. Instead, we see an attempt to just kick it down the road. This is on your heads. The fact that we are leaving this bill unresolved until, at the earliest opportunity, budget week if you move your amendments. We know that budget week hardly deals with any legislation, so the chances are it will move beyond that as well. We want to deal with it now. You are voting against that. You are voting to not deal with this and to weaken the system. Our officials have told us that this is a significant issue to resolve for the migration system's broader integrity. That is what you are voting against today. You are voting to delay it. We'll see the reasons why, no doubt, over the next four weeks, but there will be no more lectures from you on national security or strengthening our borders after today's vote. The ACTING DEPUTY PRESIDENT ( Senator Sterle ): I give the call to Senator Birmingham, noting that we have a hard marker.