Mr BOWEN (McMahon—Minister for Immigration and Citizenship) (14:14): Thank you very much, Mr Speaker. I thank the member for Werriwa for his question. The government's response to the High Court decision is to legislate to give the government of the day the ability to act in the national interest. This week the parliament had an opportunity, an opportunity to work together in the national interest— Mr Simpkins interjecting— The SPEAKER: The member for Cowan is now warned! Mr BOWEN: an opportunity to send the clearest possible message to people smugglers that, although the two sides of the House may have their differences, although we may disagree about methods and about tactics, we agree that people smugglers should not be able to run the migration program into Australia. It was an opportunity to send the message that we would act as one in the national interest and an opportunity to send the message that we would act to provide a disincentive for people making the dangerous boat journey to come to Australia. But instead what we see is more politics as usual from the Leader of the Opposition. The government believes that the Malaysia arrangement is in the national interest, because all our advice tells us that it would be the most effective deterrent to making the dangerous boat journey—and that advice has been provided to the opposition. If the opposition wilfully ignore this advice, the Australian people are entitled to conclude that the opposition have done so simply because they are afraid it will work. They are afraid it will work—and they will stop at nothing in their own political interest. They are afraid it would not be in their political interest for this to happen. I am asked about the importance of non-refoulement in the border protection policy. It is a very important and fundamental tenet of the refugee convention. That is why we have painstakingly negotiated non-refoulement clauses into the Malaysia agreement. It is important that any arrangements entered into by Australia reflect that importance. That is one of the reasons this government has rejected the policy of turning back boats on the high seas. There are some in this House who say it is okay to send boats to Indonesia with no protections negotiated but it is not okay to send planes to Malaysia with protections negotiated. That is another reason the Australian people are entitled to conclude that what we are seeing from this Leader of the Opposition is cheap opportunism and hypocrisy, because his opportunism and hypocrisy speak for themselves. The cheap and feeble excuse from the opposition for this inconsistency— Mr Laming interjecting— The SPEAKER: The member for Bowman is warned! Mr BOWEN: is: 'Oh, it's a different section of the act which governs turning back the boats.' And they are right—nobody has suggested it is the same section of the act—but it would be open for the Leader of the Opposition to walk into the House today and move an amendment to that section of the act to say: 'If you turn back a boat, you could only point it towards a refugee convention signatory country.' It would be open to the member for Warringah to do that today. Are we going to see that, Tony? Are you going to move that amendment today or will we see more cheap hypocrisy from you? The SPEAKER: Order! The minister will refer his remarks through the chair and will refer to members by their titles. Mr BOWEN: Will we see more cheap hypocrisy from the Leader of the Opposition? Let the honourable Leader of the Opposition stand at the dispatch box with his hand on his heart and say that he stayed awake at night worrying about the people we sent to Nauru, because they were not going to a refugee convention signatory country. Let him stand at the dispatch box and argue that it is okay to send people to Zimbabwe, the Republic of Congo and Iran, as the member for Cook would like to do, because they are refugee convention signatory countries. We all know the Leader of the Opposition is a weathervane, but the weathervane always points to his own political interest and not the national interest.