Chris Bowen says people smugglers are waiting for Australia to ‘blink’



LABOR has warned Tony Abbott “the people smugglers are watching” as it urges him to back government amendments to the Migration Act.


Immigration Minister Chris Bowen said Labor wanted the opposition’s support for offshore processing, not its Malaysian refugee swap.

“The people smugglers are watching. They’re asking is Australia going to blink?” he said.

“The Liberal Party is supposed to believe in offshore processing.

“The question is will Mr Abbott put his votes behind offshore processing? Will he support legislation for offshore processing?”

But, as the Opposition Leader prepared to meet with officials on the government’s proposed legislative amendments, the Coalition complained it was still being denied the legal advice underpinning the Malaysian Solution.

“It’s disappointing that to date the government has rejected our request for legal advice that went into the construction of the Malaysian proposal,” opposition immigration spokesman Scott Morrison said.

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“This is a government that is seeking a legislative blank cheque so they can go and implement more failures on the Australian public.”

Australia’s offshore processing regime was thrown into doubt when the High Court ruled the government’s plan to send up to 800 asylum-seekers to Malaysia “invalid”.

The government is unable to pursue its Malaysian plan without changes to the Migration Act, for which it will need the Coalition’s backing.

The opposition believes it may be able to implement its preferred option of processing on Nauru without legislative change.

Mr Bowen said it was a big risk to take.

“The opposition has a lot of problems if they think they can carry on with offshore processing under the existing law without making any amendments to it,” Mr Bowen said.

“We’ve been clear we want to work with the opposition on this but we believe that the government of the day should have the right to implement their own policies.”

The Malaysian Solution would see the government send up to 800 asylum-seekers to Malaysia in return for 4000 genuine refugees.

 

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