It's a bit much describing it as a moral challenge from a government that's tripled the deficit and added $100 billion to net debt.

The truth is I was Labor's last immigration minister and you have a right to hear directly from me about what that job involved, the choices that involved and how that lends us to think very carefully when we use words like 'compassion, [that] we actually know the exact context.

Malcolm Turnbull got a majority in the parliament that he is trying to ignore and lock his own members of parliament into positions that they don't hold, and sometimes into positions that we know he doesn't hold. It's no wonder the public's started turning on him.

There are serious budgetry issues that need to be worked through. Playing a game of lying about what's in the content of legislation isn't going to get them anywhere.

With a close parliament, if the Government wants to get a good outcome for the nation, they can't play a game of lying to the public about what's in their own legislation. They can't do that.

No doubt, you've got a parliament now - I mean, Malcolm Turnbull says he'll work with the parliament he's got. He's got a parliament where a majority of the members of parliament want that law to be changed. He's got a parliament where there's a majority in each House who have publicly said they want to have a Royal Commission into banks.

It's a bit much describing it as a moral challenge from a government that's tripled the deficit and added $100 billion to net debt.