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September 12th, 2011 
FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda
PM Gillard says Malaysia is still the best answer two weeks after the High Court ruled the plan as illegal.
TONY Abbott is withholding support for Julia Gillard’s plan to create a law to legitimise her Malaysia Solution asylum-seeker policy, throwing the nation’s immigration regime into doubt for at least another week.
And while the Prime Minister stared down critics from Labor’s Left to win caucus support for the move, the Greens have declared her proposal shameful and will seek to delay its progress by moving for a Senate inquiry.
The possibility of delaying tactics loomed yesterday as Australian officials warned they expected an increase in asylum-seekers arriving by boat off northern Australia in coming weeks.
The officials fear people-smugglers are moving to exploit the legal vacuum left by the High Court’s August 31 ruling declaring offshore processing of asylum-seekers illegal.
The ruling quashed Labor’s plan to send 800 asylum-seekers who arrive by boat to Malaysia for processing in return for 4000 proven refugees.
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Yesterday, Ms Gillard won cabinet and caucus backing to amend the Migration Act to re-store offshore processing and give the Minister for Immigration discretion over the treatment of unaccompanied minors. The changes, to be introduced to parliament next week, would allow the government of the day to nominate the location of processing centres.
With the Greens certain to reject any amendment in the Senate, Ms Gillard needs Coalition support to secure the changes and is hoping the creation of ministerial discretion on the location of offshore processing will overcome Mr Abbott’s rejection of the Malaysia Solution.
Noting that a Coalition government could use the changes to put in place its preference to reopen a processing centre in Nauru, Ms Gillard urged the Opposition Leader to embrace the move in his own interests.
“There’s nothing to negotiate,” she said. “The question for Mr Abbott here is . . . does he believe executive government should have the power to implement its policy on asylum-seekers and refugees full stop. Yes or no?”
She said she was not asking the Coalition to embrace Malaysia as the best place to process refugees, just as she retained her view that processing Nauru would not deter people-smugglers.
Instead, she said, she was asking Mr Abbott to back the right of an elected government to implement its policies – a principle that would be equally important if the Coalition held government.
“I am not asking Tony Abbott to give me any more power as prime minister than he would seek for himself if he were ever prime minister,” she said.
Mr Abbott said he would make no decisions until he saw the legislation, savaging the Malaysia proposal as “offshore dumping”. “Only the combination of Nauru, the reintroduction of temporary protection visas and a willingness to turn boats around where it is safe to do so will stop the boats,” he said. “The Malaysian people swap is a proven policy failure. Nauru is a proven policy success.”
As Mr Abbott kept his options open, Senator Brown said the major parties were forming “an unholy alliance” and labelled yesterday a “day of shame”.
“Treating asylum-seekers humanely by processing their claims in Australia is the best answer,” he said. “The Greens will oppose the government’s legislation at every stage.”
He said his party would move to provide “due public input” via an inquiry.
Earlier, Ms Gillard beat down similar arguments from the Labor Left, winning support for her insistence that onshore processing would encourage people-smugglers while her Malaysian solution would smash their business model.
Immigration Minister Chris Bowen told the meeting onshore processing would encourage boat arrivals and leave taxpayers with a bill of $4 billion a year.
Mr Bowen said last night that he expected Mr Abbott to support the amended legislation given that the Opposition Leader had indicated the policy was a decision for the government of the day.
“Mr Abbott said last week that he thought the government of the day should have the discretion to implement the policy the government of the days feels is necessary for border protection; now we feel this is the necessary policy,” Mr Bowen told ABC’s Lateline.
In parliament, the opposition pointed out inconsistencies between Ms Gillard’s previous statements and her new plan, including a vow Labor would not send asylum-seekers to nations that had not signed UN treaties guaranteeing proper treatment. Ms Gillard said she was acting to meet changing circumstances and demanded the opposition act on facts rather than resorting to three-word slogans and negativity. However, the Prime Minister suffered a setback when she was forced to admit to making an error of fact when arguing her case at her earlier press conference.
Ms Gillard had said that under the Howard government’s use of Nauru for processing, 95 per cent of those whose asylum claims were found to be justified ended up being settled in Australia. Her office conceded last night the figure related to settlements in Australia and New Zealand.
The political developments came as Australian officials indicated they believed the word was out for asylum-seekers to head for Australia now before the legal issues were resolved. More boats were coming but there was not a flood of them, officials told The Australian.
Additional reporting: Brendan Nicholson, Lanai Vasek
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