The Australian Churches’ Refugee Taskforce has welcomed the decision of the federal Labor party not to support a Turnbull Government move to subject asylum seekers who arrived after mid-2013 to a lifetime visa ban.
ALP MPs and senators yesterday voted unanimously to oppose the bill introduced to Parliament yesterday. The Greens have also said they opposed the proposal which means the bill will need the support of the majority of cross-bench senators to make it law.
Misha Coleman, executive officer of the ACRT, said that while the “disgraceful proposal” had been called out, “we continue to worry about the potential for horse-trading over potential amendments”.
“An end to the race to the bottom on refugee policy is overdue,” she said. “Hopefully this is the beginning of the end of refugees being used as political pawns…Once the nasty partisan point scoring is taken out of refugee politics, we are confident that a workable solution can be found to treat refugees humanely on Australian soil and prevent deaths at sea. There is a better way.”
The taskforce chairman, Rev Dr Peter Catt, described the move by the ALP as “the first positive move we have seen in our national discourse about people seeking asylum in years”.
“The time has come to break with the simplistic rhetoric and have a proper national conversation about how we meet the needs of people who are fleeing war and persecution.”
Under the proposal asylum seekers who arrived after 19th July, 2013, would be permanently banned from ever receiving a visa to Australia for any purpose. The proposal does allow for ministerial discretion to over-rule the ban.
