Mr SWAN (11:59 AM) —I wish to address the motion that has been moved by the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Finance and Administration. This parliament has a very serious problem: it is trying to deal with important antiterrorism legislation that is now six months and 16 hours late. We are dealing with bills that should have been passed in the parliament before it rose on 27 September. We are dealing with bills that should have been dealt with six months ago. The Howard government comes into the House and expects us to rubber-stamp the bills now because it is in desperate need of a political diversion.

Just consider for a moment the climate in which the federal election campaign was fought. On 10 November no-one would have argued that the pre-eminent concerns of the Howard government were the issues of border security and terrorism. Indeed, I will quote the Prime Minister. He said:

He has demonstrated a capacity not to bring legislation into this House for six months! Today the government brings in a whole raft of bills that it expects us to rubber-stamp because the Prime Minister has been either too incompetent or too distracted to deal with these important issues in a timely way. This man who promised he would take the difficult decisions has in fact done nothing for six months and 16 hours. For 138 days this parliament did not sit. During that time there were two critical United Nations conventions—about the suppression of terrorist bombings and the suppression of the financing of terrorism—which themselves were concluded in 1998 and 1999 and which could have been ratified and legislated for at any time in the previous couple of years, and most certainly before the parliament rose on 27 September. But we have seen nothing for six months and 16 hours.

You might recall, Madam Deputy Speaker, that this side of the House called for that legislation after September 11 and, despite that, the government did nothing. This important legislation could have been passed before parliament rose, and it should have been passed. But the government is here today, six months and 16 hours too late. Instead, we have in this House today one of the most contemptuous displays by a government. It says there are urgent issues of border security. The government says it is responding to the events of September 11—responding six months and 16 hours too late because it has not sat the parliament, until the recent sittings, for 138 days. As we said yesterday, the government had a long, endless summer. It was too busy for six months and 16 hours enjoying that long, endless summer to deal with the critical issues of border security and national security.

What do we get now? We get panic. That is why all this legislation has turned up at the last minute. We have been given something like 16 hours to look at five or six bills that have been dumped in the House, because the government is now in a panic. Or, is it looking for a political diversion, because, suddenly, border security and terrorism are urgent issues again. The Prime Minister is a bit like the hare in the tale of the tortoise and the hare: he has been asleep and he now finds himself, six months on from September 11, having done nothing to protect the Australian people, despite all the promises that were made before 10 November. So he is now scurrying to look like he cares, scurrying around to create another diversion.

The Prime Minister has become famous for his deception of the Australian people on a host of issues, but they are all unravelling on him in this parliament. That is why the Prime Minister has not had the parliament sitting. That is why we have not been given the time we require to consider these bills. This government cannot take accountability. When the accountability is enforced, either in this House or in the Senate, all of the deception—all of the lies—is exposed.

As a result, we had these bills dumped in the House at 8 p.m. last night. We have 120 pages of detailed legislative amendments. The Australian Labor Party has responded to this situation in a very responsible way. We immediately convened all of our party's committees. We had them meeting past midnight. We convened our caucus this morning because, to our way of thinking, nothing could be more important to the Australian people than our national security and our border security, and the security of Australians from acts of terrorism. We responded, despite the impossible timetable provided by this government. We have been given less than 24 hours to consider this extremely important legislation that contains sweeping measures that include giving new powers to the Attorney-General to proscribe organisations; it will be an offence for people to be members of those organisations or to associate with them. These are very serious measures that require careful and detailed consideration.

The Labor Party is a robust opponent of terrorism. But we are also a robust proponent of accountability and good government, because that is what people send us here for. That is why it is so tragic that, today, the government is six months and 16 hours late. So we are going to facilitate the progress of these bills through the House. We believe they can be further scrutinised in the Senate. But let me say this, Minister: this is the last time the Australian Labor Party will tolerate the government's contempt for the parliamentary process and the people of Australia, who expect this parliament to carefully consider all of the laws that it makes, and this is particularly so in the case of the legislation that will affect the legal rights of Australians. Those Australians concerned about the tragedy of September 11 must be ashamed that our government would seek to use these events as some form of political cover or diversion. Our Prime Minister should therefore be ashamed of himself for this approach. He has now acted in relation to the terrorist threat only because his own political hide has been so exposed in this chamber and in the Senate over the last fortnight.

He is in acute political difficulty because he and his government said anything, and did anything, to win that election. Now it is all unravelling so he is trying to go back to his old tried and true formula. I do not think it works any more. The deception is exposed. Now we have the appalling spectacle over the last 24 hours of legislation just being dumped in the parliament—legislation that is 120-odd pages long and which has profound effects on the daily lives of Australians—and the Labor opposition is expected to turn it round in 24 hours. We are not a sausage factory and we are not a rubber stamp. This will be the end of any tolerance from this side of the House of the contempt that has been shown for this parliament by the Howard government. As is usually the case, there is a double standard from the Howard government. Whilst we have had less then 24 hours, it now emerges that government backbenchers have had days, if not weeks, if not months—that is the double standard. They have been fighting in their party room over this legislation. They cannot agree. But when did we see the legislation? Less than 24 hours ago. So those sorts of disgraceful tactics have also been exposed.

Looking to the future, I say to the government: we understand, Parliamentary Secretary, that you have the numbers. That is not contested. But we are going to employ every procedure and every device known to this parliament to keep you accountable. You are on notice that we are going to do that. We will not tolerate the Leader of the House using the parliament as his own political plaything. We will not tolerate the Leader of the House using the parliament as his own punching bag. He might want to come in here and go on like Joe Bugner. But the truth is this parliament and the people of Australia are not going to become his political punching bag. We are going to hold you accountable. Our actions may cause some frustration to the government or some disruption to its program, but there is one thing that is more important: the accountability of the people's House to the people of Australia. That is our job: accountability is going to be delivered by this parliament and it will be delivered by the Australian Labor Party.

Mr SLIPPER —It will not surprise honourable members that the government rejects the assertions made by the honourable member for Lilley.

Question agreed to.