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Labor leader Bill Shorten has accused Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull of stooping to “a new low” over the government’s plans to cut off income support and accommodation for refugees and asylum seekers.
On Sunday a spokesperson for immigration minister Peter Dutton said asylum seekers that were transferred to Australia for medical treatment would be deported back to Nauru, Manus Island or their country of origin. In a statement on Facebook, Shorten said “kicking people onto the streets with no support is needlessly cruel and really, really dumb”, and was the act of “a weak prime minister trying to look tough”. Shorten reiterated, however, that Labor believed the asylum seekers “should be eligible for settlement in the United States or other countries”, rather than in Australia.
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Alex McKinnon, The Saturday Paper
