Little wiggle room given on refugees
GOLD Coast MP Karen Andrews has found herself the meat in the sandwich between Immigration Minister Peter Dutton and a Gold Coast group demanding Australia show compassion for asylum seekers.
After the group took their petitions with 460 signatures to Ms Andrews’ McPherson electorate office at Varsity Lakes and staged a protest, the MP accepted the forms and told the group they would be handed to Mr Dutton.
Ms Andrews, who is also Assistant Minister for Vocational Education and Skills, has written to group spokeswoman Ann Baillie, promising to come back with Mr Dutton’s response.
But Mr Dutton late last week vowed no “illegal maritime arrivals” on Manus Island or Nauru would ever be brought to Australia.
“Settlement is not an admission of liability in any regard,” Mr Dutton said.
His comments followed Canberra’s capitulation in a class action taken by 1905 Manus Island detainees, with the Government agreeing to a reported $70 million settlement and up to $20 million in costs to compensate asylum seekers held in poor conditions between November 2012 and December 2014.
Mr Dutton said fighting the action would have cost the country a lot more.
Gold Coast petitioners, some operating under the umbrella of the GetUp! lobby group, asked Ms Andrews to support a plan to evacuate detention camps on Manus Island and Nauru so no one would be left behind.
The petition also called for asylum seekers to be offered fair options for safe resettlement, for families to be reunited, for people excluded from a resettlement deal with the US to be brought to Australia, and for asylum seekers already in Australia, including those born here, to remain.
Ms Andrews said the Government was committed to ensuring any policy change did not offer encouragement to people smugglers.
“The Coalition Government’s policies had successfully stopped the evil people smuggling trade that under Labor led to more than 50,000 people arriving by boat, over a thousand deaths at sea and detention centres overflowing,’’ she said.
“Under the Coalition, 17 detention centres have been closed and there are no longer any children in detention. The Government is also boosting its humanitarian program with the number of refugees brought to Australia increasing to 18,750 by 2018-19.’’
Petitioners, who gathered 337 signatures on paper, 123 signatures online and another 360 signatures in a separate petition to Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, told the Bulletin MPs had to stop playing politics with people’s lives.