Coroner & Legal
Abbott, Gillard race to bottom on asylum policy
Opposition Leader Tony Abbott’s glib defence of the Howard era’s “protection” of asylum seekers as “upholding basic human rights” highlights how low, self-serving and myopic his race to the bottom with the Gillard government has become, Australian Greens Leader Bob Brown said today.
“And Minister Bowen’s legislation allowing him to decide to which third country asylum seekers can be sent ‘in the public interest’ flies in the face of repeated Nielsen polls showing the majority public interest is in processing asylum seekers in Australia, not Malaysia,” Senator Brown said in Hobart.
“The Greens will oppose the Bowen bill as we opposed the Howard bills to allow offshore processing a decade ago.”
“Both Labor and the Coalition are concocting a stalemate which while ever it prevails will leave processing offshore out of the question. It’s the right outcome for the wrong reason.”
“The debate should be about how quickly we process asylum seekers onshore,” Senator Brown said.