Oppositions are not there to get legislation through. Oppositions are there to hold the government to account.

I understand that government should live within its means, value the money it holds in trust from you the taxpayer, avoid waste and, above all else, observe the first maxim of good government: namely, do no avoidable harm.

I'm a politician. I'm not going to get into a whole range of scientific argument with scientists.

I think that people should come to Australia through the front door, not through the back door. If people want a migration outcome, they should go through the migration channels.

Most of the people who are coming to Australia by boat have passed through several countries on the way, and if they simply wanted asylum they could have claimed that in any of the countries through which they'd passed.

This is a shameless, shameful moment ... as the government bulldozes through the sale of Telstra legislation… And it's a sad moment for the Australian people who are overwhelmingly opposed to the sale… We witnessed both in this chamber and over in the other chamber an almost obscene dancing by our political opponents when this legislation passed through,