JULIA Gillard has blamed the Opposition for future asylum seeker arrivals after two boats carrying more than 120 asylum seekers were intercepted overnight.
The Prime Minister said Opposition Leader Tony Abbott’s refusal to back Government legislation enabling off-shore processing was encouraging people smugglers.
Ms Gillard said if the Government’s bill wasn’t passed with Opposition backing, “then that will send a message up the people-smuggling pipeline to send more boats, and that will be Mr Abbott’s responsibility”.
And Home Affairs Minister Brendan O’Connor said Mr Abbott had become the “best friend” of people smugglers, blaming him for the two most recent boat arrivals.
“He is telling them to come on down and they are coming on down,” Mr O’Connor told reporters.
He said one boat with 66 passengers and two crew was located in distress in international waters 100 nautical miles from Christmas Island by HMAS Pirie.
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Another boat with 60 passengers and three crew was intercepted north-east of Christmas Island.
“There will be a greater likelihood of an increase in maritime arrivals in this manner, in an irregular manner, if we do not have the strongest possible deterrent,” he told reporters.
“So there will be an increase. I’m not suggesting just over the two weeks (to the next sitting of Parliament) but over the medium to longer term we will see more irregular arrivals because of Tony Abbott’s inability to put the national interest before his own interests.”
The House of Representatives spent most of yesterday discussing the Government legislation.
The Opposition wants to amend it to say that all third countries must have signed the UN convention on refugees, which could limit the options to Nauru.
The Government believes it can get a victory in the Lower House by accepting an amendment from independent MP Rob Oakeshott, but without the Opposition the bill would be doomed in the Senate.
A vote was put off until Parliament returns in two weeks when debate will be resumed.
The Prime Minister said today it was clear the Opposition amendment would not get the backing of enough cross bench MPs to be passed, and that Mr Abbott now had to reconsider his rejection of the Government bill.
She said he could pass the Government legislation, or vote against it with the Greens and restrict this and any future governments to off-shore processing of asylum seekers.
“This is not a time for Mr Abbott to simply press the ‘no’ button again, and just say ‘no’,” she said.
Ms Gillard said Opposition rejection would mean Mr Abbott telling was voters “that when he says he wants to stop the boats that wasn’t true”.
“The right to vote in this Parliament comes with responsibility and if Mr Abbott ends the ability of government to process off-shore then he must also take the responsibility for the consequences that that lack of resolve will send to people smugglers,” Ms Gillard said.
“They will be watching this Parliament to see what resolve this Parliament has. If they see no resolve then that means that we will see more boats and Mr Abbott will need to take the responsibility for that.”
However, Tony Abbott said he won’t change his mind on the legislation because he continued to reject the Government’s Malaysian deal on asylum seekers.
“We support offshore processing, we invented it, we’ve got the patent on it, but it’s got to be the right offshore processing, not the wrong one,” Mr Abbott told the Nine Network.
“It’s a bad deal for Australia; it’s a cruel deal for boat people; and it’s a dud deal for everyone because it hasn’t worked.”
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