The federal government is to excise the entire continent of Australia
from the migration zone, stripping rights from asylum seekers who
arrive by boat.
The Labor caucus on Tuesday approved laws to introduce the change, aborted six years ago by the Howard government.
It was a recommendation of an expert panel headed by former
defence force chief Angus Houston to which the Labor caucus has given
in-principle support.
During the caucus meeting in Canberra, two Labor MPs sought
assurances from Immigration Minister Chris Bowen about protecting human
rights.
Mr Bowen told the meeting the laws would follow international
guidelines for migration and were in line with the Houston report's
recommendations.
Earlier cabinet secretary Mark Dreyfus said the government
was determined to discourage people from getting on boats and
undertaking the dangerous journey to Australia.
"Our policy is to do whatever we need to do to stop the
dreadful drowning of people trying to reach Australia," Mr Dreyfus told
reporters.
Under existing migration services laws, only asylum seekers
intercepted at sea or at Christmas Island, the Cocos Islands or Ashmore
Reef can be sent for processing at Nauru or Papua New Guinea's Manus
Island.
By expanding the migration excise zone to the mainland, the
government will be reviving a plan dumped by the Howard government
following a backbench revolt led by Liberal moderates.
The opposition says it will consider any changes to the legislation.
"We'll take it through our processes," immigration spokesman Scott Morrison said.
Australian Greens immigration spokeswoman Sarah Hanson-Young
described the plan as a shameful piece of legislation that discriminated
against some of the most vulnerable people in the region.
"This Labor government is now going to try to enact
legislation that is so discriminatory and un-Australian that John Howard
faced an internal revolt when he tried it in 2006," the senator said.
Cabinet minister Craig Emerson, when asked if he thought the
plan would receive the backing of the caucus, told Sky News: "I'm not
one who anticipates these things.
"What I am is one who joined with others in accepting
in-principle the recommendations of the Houston panel as a cohesive
whole."
The bill is expected to go to parliament this week.
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