16th Aug 2012, 5:17 PM – Senate Migration Legislation Amendment (Regional Processing and Other Measures) Bill 2012 - Second Reading - Coalition policies (b)

The majority voted against part (b) of a motion proposed by Liberal Senator Eric Abetz.

This motion calls on the Government to implement Coalition policies with regards to asylum seekers. This includes:

• restoring temporary protection visas for persons found to be refugees;
• instructions to turn back asylum seekers boats when it is safe to do so;
• removing the benefit of the doubt on a person's identity when it is suspected that that person deliberately discarded their documentation;
• making the Bali Process focus on deterrence and border security.

Someone who votes aye for this motion supports this view. The majority voted no to this motion so it was unsuccessful.

Background to the bill

The bill was originally introduced in the House of Representatives as the Migration Legislation Amendment (Offshore Processing and Other Measures) Bill 2011. It was drafted in response to the High Court's judgement in Plaintiff M70/2011 v Minister for Immigration and Citizenship () HCA 32, which put an end to the Labor Government's Malaysia Solution policy.(Read more about the decision on Wikipedia here and on ABC News here. Read more about the effect of this decision on the Malaysia Solution here.)

To this end, the bill amends the Migration Act 1958 to replace the existing framework for taking offshore entry persons to another country for assessment of their claims to be refugees. The bill also replaces discretionary detention with mandatory detention for all asylum seekers at an offshore place, such as Christmas Island, and alters the Immigration (Guardianship of Children) Act 1946 in relation to making and implementing any decision to remove, deport or take a non-citizen child from Australia by overriding the guardianship obligations under that Act.

References