Labor push to boost refugee intake to 50,000

AUSTRALIA: Labor’s policy committee is considering a plan to lift Australia’s refugee intake to 50,000, as Left-wingers jostle to soften the party’s position on asylum seekers at this year’s national conference.

Party members, unionists and MPs – including Left co-convenor Andrew Giles – are seeking to get elected as delegates to the triennial conference on a pro-refugee platform, promising to make a ‘‘real difference’’ to the party’s policies and to make them ‘‘humane’’.

A working group on the powerful National Policy Forum is investigating proposals to increase Australia’s annual refugee intake to 50,000 – the same target as the Greens. It is understood the proposal is in a ‘‘maybe pile’’ of ideas that merit further discussion.

In a wide-ranging submission to the policy forum, the Labor For Refugees group proposed to move the party to the left by more than doubling the refugee intake, bringing all refugees on Nauru and Manus Island to Australia, and launching a royal commission into immigration detention.

The Turnbull government increased the annual refugee intake to 19,000, and Labor’s current position is to increase it to 27,000 by 2025. The Greens want an intake of 50,000, with 10,000 of that to be for ‘‘skilled refugees’’.

Meanwhile, Giles has promised to do ‘‘all I can’’ to fix the party’s asylum seeker policies if elected as a delegate to the upcoming national conference.

‘‘I am determined to again do all I can . . . to develop a policy which is humane and which would make a real difference,’’ he told party members.

The push to change Labor policy will be seized upon by Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton, who has long warned of a shift to the left on asylum seekers if Labor leader Bill Shorten becomes prime minister. –