Bill to allow offshore processing of asylum seekers passes lower house of parliament
- From: The Courier-Mail
- June 28, 2012
A BILL to allow offshore processing of asylum seekers has passed the lower house of parliament.
The legislation, put up by Independent Rob Oakeshott passed 74 votes to 72 at 1959 AEST Wednesday, after almost six hours of heated debate and as the crossbenchers sided with the government.
Earlier, MPs voted against proposed coalition amendments to the bill.
Its amendments were defeated 74 votes to 72, after independents Rob Oakeshott, Tony Windsor and Craig Thomson and Bob Katter and Greens MP Adam Bandt voted with the government.
Mr Oakeshott's bill is aimed at bridging the government's proposed changes to the Migration Act to allow offshore processing in Malaysia against opposition demands for humanitarian safeguards.
It will allow an immigration minister to designate any nation as an "offshore assessment country" as long as it was party to the Bali Process, which includes Malaysia.
The coalition had wanted to ensure refugees were only sent to countries which had signed the UN refugee convention, which would exclude Malaysia.
Prime Minister Julia Gillard has warned the Senate it would an act of destruction not to pass laws removing the legal uncertainty over offshore processing of asylum seekers.
But Opposition Leader Tony Abbott says the coalition won't support the federal government's asylum seeker legislation and it's doomed to fail in the Senate.
Mr Abbott said Prime Minister Julia Gillard had opted for a short-lived victory in the House of Representatives over a long-term solution.
Independent MP Rob Oakeshott has called for pressure on individual senators to back his asylum seeker bill.
Australian Greens leader Christine Milne said Australia wouldn't be in the mess it's now in over asylum seekers if all the money spent on the Pacific Solution had been devoted to achieving a longterm solution.
Meanwhile, Andrew Wilkie put up his own amendment for a 12-month sunset clause, which would end the measures after a year.
It was agreed 75 votes to 71.
The amended bill will now go to the senate.
But it will face hurdles because the Greens have said they would give support in line with their blanket opposition to offshore processing.
Earlier: Opposition Leader Tony Abbott this afternoon announced he would introduce his own private member's bill to the house that would allow offshore processing to occur in a country that was signatory to the United Nations refugee convention.
Malaysia is not signatory to the convention.
Mr Abbott described today as "another grim day''.
"I do think it is important particularly with two disasters in less than a week that the Australian Parliament do what it can to deliver a stronger policy response,'' Mr Abbott said.
PM Julia Gillard has told the parliament she believes 123 people have been rescued from the boat.
She said she believed between 123 and 133 people were on board the ill fated vessel, but it was too early to be precise about numbers.
Calling on Mr Oakeshott's bill to be brought forward she said she wanted to walk from the parliament saying "no one won, no one lost, we just got something done".
Ms Gillard said the issue shouldn't be about party politics.
Mr Abbott said it was time to put aside "some of the ordinary partisan politicking that so often marks this parliament".
"Nevertheless, I don't think anyone on either side of this parliament would expect people to put aside their strongly held beliefs ... on the question of border protection," he told parliament.
Mr Abbott asked the government to give the opposition more time to consider its position on the issue, "given that we've had no notice".
Ms Gillard denied the request, saying the matter required urgent action.
"I believe the eyes of the nation are upon us, given this second incident with an asylum seeker vessel, and nothing is to be gained by delay," she said.
Mr Oakeshott told the house his bill should be passed and the government should be allowed to do its job.
"This is as much as anything (about) trying to stop the loss of life at sea of people trying to get to Australia," he said.
"This is trying to reach bilateral agreements with countries in the Asia-Pacific region.
"This is attempting to try and break criminal syndicates ... involved in the insidious trade of people smuggling."
Mr Oakeshott said his bill was not a carbon copy of the government's legislation.
Immigration Minister Chris Bowen said the parliament should say "yes" to saving lives.
"There's nothing as harsh as dying on the sea."
Coalition frontbencher Malcolm Turnbull said none of the so-called asylum seeker solutions being proposed were "particularly palatable".
"All of them have great difficulties, contradictions and painful choices associated with them," he said.
"They all have aspects that are cruel."
But he said the coalition could not support the Malaysian solution because it failed to reach the "right balance" by abandoning human rights protections.
Mr Turnbull pointed out that even if Mr Oakeshott's bill passed the lower house it would stall in the Senate because the coalition and Greens both opposed it.
"So it can never be law," he said.
"So what is this about other than an effort to embarrass the coalition, to put pressure on the coalition?"
Mr Turnbull urged Ms Gillard to reopen Nauru and if that did not work, come back to argue in favour of stronger measures like Malaysia.
She was "allowing the conception of the perfect to be the enemy of the good."
The former Liberal leader said the the nation and the parliament needed to make a decision this week.
Emotional Liberal MP Michael Keenan said sending people to Malaysia was not the solution.
He recalled his involvement in the parliamentary inquiry into the SIEV 221 tragedy, when more than 50 asylum seekers died when a boat crashed against rocks off Christmas Island in late 2010.
"One of the Australians told me (that) he looked face to face with a child who he couldn't rescue, even though he could almost touch her," Mr Keenan said.
"And that child perished."
He urged MPs to support the opposition's policies rather than Mr Oakeshott's bill.