So, the new Labor plan is... slightly different from Howard's policy, in that East Timor is run by actual competent people who are less likely to say "sure, whatevs" than Nauru.news.com.au wrote:IT'S an election battlefield, but the big parties agree: Julia Gillard and Tony Abbott both want boat people to go somewhere else.
Announcing a new Labor policy on asylum seekers, the Prime Minister talked for nearly an hour before announcing the plan. Tony Abbott unveiled his own policy just minutes earlier, a stunt which shows we're not far off an election campaign.
Ms Gillard rejected the Coalition's promise to return to the Pacific solution of the Howard years, in which asylum seeker boats were taken to small Pacific nations such as Nauru to be processed.
Instead, she announced something which sounds pretty similar, saying talks were underway to establish a processing centre in East Timor to assess claims there. She had also spoken to New Zealand and the UN refugee agency on the idea.
"The purpose would be to ensure that people smugglers have no product to sell. Arriving by boat would just be a ticket back to the regional processing centre," she said.
She summed up the plan with a quote which would have made Kevin Rudd proud, saying her government was "not interested in pursuing a new Pacific solution" but instead wanted a "regional protection framework".
She said East Timor welcomed the chance to talk more about the idea. That suggests the policy still has a long way to go before it is locked down.
Refugee advocates said the East Timor plan would be costly and would make no difference unless Indonesia was included. "I expect that the regional centre will not happen," the Refugee Action Coalition's Ian Rintoul said.
Not racist
Ms Gillard spent several minutes outlining the population pressures in some areas of Australia - often marginal seats important at this year's election - which make some people anxious about boat people.
But she also said asylum seekers made up a small fraction of overall immigration in Australia, and arrivals here were a tiny part of the worldwide number.
She said voters should be free to express their concerns about boat people arrivals without being branded racists. "There are racists in every country but expressing a desire for a clear and firm policy when you are faced with a difficult problem does not make you a racist," she said.
She said Mr Abbott's boast that he could "turn the boats back" was shallow and wrong. Ships would be sabotaged and asylum seekers would end up in the ocean, needing help.
"The strategy of turning the boats back would be a strategy of rescuing asylum seekers from the water ... and Mr Abbott knows it," she said.
She said the political point-scoring on the issue was drowning out serious debate. "We are much better than this," she said. But she also said refugees in Australia had to "learn English and get a job".
"There is no quick fix. It is about stopping people getting in boats. It will take time, but I believe it will be worth the effort. I ask for the patience and support of the Australian people." Read her full speech here.
As expected, Ms Gillard ended the three-month freeze on processing of Sri Lankan asylum seekers. and send back Afghans - which would be the first time since 2001 that Australia has returned people to the war-torn region. But a similar freeze on claims from people fleeing Afghanistan remained under review.
Abbott's plan
Mr Abbott made his announcement a few minutes before Ms Gillard had been scheduled to speak. Read Mr Abbott's announcement in full.
In addition to previous promises to return to Howard-era policies of temporary protection visas and the Pacific solution, Mr Abbott announced:
- asylum seekers who deliberately ditch their documents will be automatically denied refugee status;
- the immigration minister would be able to overrule decisions on claims;
- local groups would be allowed to sponsor refugees to bring them to Australia independently.
Speaking earlier about the documentation rule, Opposition immigration spokesman Scott Morrison said: "If someone wants to do that and seek to take advantage of Australia's generosity, then we won't be giving them the green light".
The Coalition said allowing a politician to overrule decisions would bring greater "objectivity" to the process.
Refugee advocates said Mr Abbott's documents policy had been tried before and failed and that it was "appalling" to give a politician final say on every asylum claim.
It's also worth noting that the so-called "boat people” aren't actually illegal immigrants. They are asylum seekers, and it is not actually illegal to to enter a country as a refugee, even if you haven't sorted out your visa status beforehand. Most people in the country illegally are actually tourists (mostly British) overstaying their visa. Said visa overstayers actually outnumber Australia's total refugee intake, but you don't see people complaining about them. I wonder why?
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