Mr HOWARTH (Petrie—Assistant Minister for Community Housing, Homelessness and Community Services) (15:21): This is a very strange MPI from the member for Clark. He's got up here today and he's spoken about Julian Assange and criticised the US military. As a left-wing independent MP in Tasmania, he's talking about the US military. None of that was in the topic for today's MPI. The topic was quite bizarre, quite frankly. If he wanted to talk about Julian Assange maybe he should have put that in the notes for what he wanted to talk about. There would have been plenty who wanted to speak on that. But the topic is really quite bizarre. The member for Clark talks about the disregard for the rule of law and the sovereignty of our nation, saying the government doesn't support the sovereignty of our nation and that we don't support a healthy democracy. There's nothing here about Julian Assange. Basically he went for five minutes, spoke about that and sat down, and that was the whole argument. We have a very strong democracy here in Australia and a strong constitutional monarchy. If you really want to look at what people think about Australia, look at what happens when you go to a citizenship ceremony? If you go to a citizenship ceremony and you talk to new Australian citizens who are busting at the seams to come to Australia, and you look at Australia through the eyes of a new citizen, they specifically love our country. They really want to be here. They're lining up to come in. You can see the tears in their eyes. On the weekend, I was out in North Lakes with some constituents of mine, Charlene and Brent Alley. I had lunch at their place at North Lakes. They originally moved here from South Africa. They were welcoming a new family, Yoshi and his family, which had just come to Australia and have permanent visas here. I spent time with those 20 people. They were just so grateful to be here in Australia—really grateful. I was talking to the member for Brisbane before as well. We were sitting here, and he was saying that he was out at the markets on the weekend and he had a constituent come up and talk to him about everything that was wrong with Australia, or everything that needed fixing, and described him as a miserable leftie. But, what he actually said to her was: 'What is it that you like about Australia? What is it that you love about Australia?' They couldn't answer—not one thing. They were baffled by the question: what is it you love about Australia? I love lots about our country, as a man that comes from Brisbane. I love our democracy. Our democracy is strong. I love our rule of law and that in Australia we've much safer, I believe, than in many other countries, generally speaking. People generally respect the law, and it's enforced well through state governments and through the police in different states. We have the freedom to worship in Australia, to be able to believe in our faith. Whether we have a faith or we don't, we have the freedom to worship and gather and express our views. I love the fact that in Australia we celebrate Christmas. Christmas is a special time of the year. Growing up in Bracken Ridge, Christmas was very important. An honourable member interjecting— Mr HOWARTH: Well, not all countries do. I recently spent time overseas, and not all countries do celebrate Christmas—not in the way that we do here in Australia, and I love that. I love our environment. We have a beautiful, wonderful environment here in Australia. I love our freshwater ecosystems, native animals, coral reefs and diverse continent. I love the fact that you can go to the member for Clark's electorate down in Tasmania and get a completely different environment from up in the Cape York Peninsula or the Daintree, where I've travelled. Having travelled around Australia with my young family before coming into parliament in 2011, I really do appreciate that. I appreciate our egalitarian society in Australia, whether you're a member of parliament, like the Prime Minister, or whether you're unemployed, or perhaps even living on the street, as a homeless person. As the Assistant Minister for Community Housing, Homelessness and Community Services, I've been meeting a lot of homeless people lately. Last Wednesday night I went out onto the streets of Brisbane with Micah to feed the homeless and chat to them. There were some 100 people lining up. We do have an egalitarian society in Australia, but, if you look at the member for Clark's MPI today, he thinks everything is wrong with our country; there's nothing positive here at all. Mr Wilkie: It's the government! Mr HOWARTH: I would expect that from a Greens member—through you, Mr Chair. I would expect that from the member for Melbourne, because when you listen to the Greens all they talk about is what's wrong with this country. They have nothing positive to say. The Independent member for Clark is a nice fella personally. I've been to his electorate and I do like the man as a person, but he's very close to the Greens in his views. I believe that is everything that is wrong with this MPI today. We, of course, are very sovereign. Having come into this parliament in 2013, one of the first things we did was speak about Operation Sovereign Borders and the need to make sure that our borders were strong in relation to illegal arrivals by boat—people paying people smugglers to come to this country. We implemented a set of rules or procedures that Operation Sovereign Borders enacted. It looked at turning back boats where it was safe to do so, it looked at offshore processing and it looked at temporary protection visas. That policy saved many lives. It stopped deaths at sea, it closed 19 detention centres and it removed all children from detention. The member for Clark voted against it and was completely against it. Everything we try to do in this parliament in relation to Australia's sovereignty, the member for Clark is against. He puts out an MPI—for the Greens member over there—about the government's disregard for sovereignty and a healthy democracy. Yet he comes in here, as a member for Tasmania, and wants to talk about the US military. We've also cancelled visas. We've cancelled many visas of non-Australian citizens, permanent residents of Australia, who are sentenced to jail terms of 12 months or more—people who have been convicted of serious offences: sexual assaults against children, armed robbery and so forth. We have sent many, many people home. We've also wanted to ensure and put into legislation that that not be dependent on a 12-month jail sentence. Who voted against it? The members opposite who stood with the member for Clark on this MPI. They joined him when they stood in approval of this MPI. An honourable member interjecting— Mr HOWARTH: But you all stood. The member for Clark also voted against that. The member for Clark wants to ensure that permanent residents that commit crimes aren't sent packing. Guess what? As the member for Petrie I say that the Australian government is here to serve the Australian people. The hypocrisy of the member for Clark is astounding. The basis of upstanding political behaviour in Australia is reliant on at least three ideals: following the Constitution with repeated self-regulation, ensuring that decisions are independent of external forces and ensuring that the people of Australia are fairly represented. Australians want a government that follows these ideals, and it baffles me that opposition MPs broach such a topic without seeing the seeping irony. It seems peculiar that I am here to defend the Australian government and our healthy democratic ideals when, in May last year, we won another democratic election. Australians didn't want more antics or broken promises; they wanted a government that delivered consistently and represented the people's interests. To those members that are about to speak: to argue that the Morrison government does not represent a healthy democracy is to simultaneously argue that the Australian people didn't actually know what they wanted or what they were doing in May last year. The opposition MPs' argument ends right where it begins. (Time expired)