Boat arrivals reignite asylum seeker debatePUBLISHED: 02 Jul 2012 08:34:00 | UPDATED: 04 Jul 2012 00:48:17PUBLISHED: 02 Jul 2012 PRINT EDITION: 03 Jul 2012
The federal government is under renewed pressure to break the parliamentary deadlock over asylum seeker policy as new boat arrivals push the number of people risking dangerous trips to record highs.
Howard-era foreign minister and Liberal leader Alexander Downer last night challenged Labor to support a return to offshore processing on Nauru, north of the Solomon Islands, and Manus Island in Papua New Guinea, after the fourth boat arrival in as many days, on Sunday night.
The number of asylum seekers intercepted in Australian waters since January has reached 5374, including 1674 in the past four weeks.
This is more than in any of the previous 20 years except 2009-10 and 2011-12.
Proponents of the Howard government’s Pacific Solution, which also involved temporary protection visas to stop people sponsoring family members to join them, and towing back some boats, have pointed to the dramatic decline in arrivals from 2002 to 2008.
“We sent out a broad and simple message, aided by the political controversy that surrounded our decisions, that we simply weren’t going to accept people coming to Australia in that way,” Mr Downer told The Australian Financial Review.
“I believe the best thing to do, for the government, is to announce that in the teeth of the intransigence of the Parliament, it only has two choices: it can go with the Greens, which is its current policy, that is to do nothing . . . or they’ll go with the Coalition [and support a Pacific Solution-style policy].
“It doesn’t have the numbers to do anything else.”
The secretary of the Immigration Department, Andrew Metcalfe, who also advised former prime minister John Howard, has said the Pacific Solution would not work a second time.
John Menadue, secretary of the immigration department in the Fraser coalition government, said that although processing at Nauru had “caused a lot of confusion” and boats had largely stopped, people had continued coming by air at a rate of about 4000 a year. “What is important is the total number, not whether they come by boat or whether they come by air,” he said.
Mr Downer said that this was not the case because people coming by air had a passport and a visa.
Mr Menadue said that Nauru would not work again because people smugglers knew that, of the 1640 asylum seekers processed on Nauru who were found to be refugees, all but 45 ended up in Australia or New Zealand.
Prime Minister Julia Gillard last week set up an expert panel headed by former defence force chief Angus Houston to consider all asylum policy options.
She has hinted that she could dump Labor’s Malaysia “people swap” option if this is recommended by the panel, which has been asked to report by the time Parliament resumes on August 14.
Under the Malaysia deal, Australia would have sent 800 asylum seekers to that country in return for accepting 4000 processed refugees from Malaysia. But the High Court struck down the deal in August and the opposition and Greens have refused to support legislation to effect the policy.
Mr Menadue said the Malaysia deal was part of the answer, but a range of other measures were needed.
This included working with Indonesia and setting up an “orderly departure program” for asylum seekers from Afghanistan.
He said that about 100,000 Vietnamese came to Australia after the Vietnam war under a similar, “very successful” program that stopped people from risking their lives on boats.
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The Australian Financial Review