Alan Jones slams Peter Dutton over Tamil family’s treatment
Allowing a Tamil family seeking asylum to stay in Australia would be the “worst possible thing” according to Prime Minister Scott Morrison, who said they should reapply for a visa once they’ve returned to Sri Lanka.
NSW
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Allowing a Tamil family seeking asylum to stay in Australia would be the “worst possible thing” according to Prime Minister Scott Morrison, who said they should reapply for a visa once they’ve returned to Sri Lanka.
The family, which is now awaiting a Federal Court hearing on Wednesday to decide their fate, have received support from across the country including the backing of radio heavyweight Alan Jones, who slammed the government’s treatment of the family as “beyond disgraceful”.
Priya and Nadesalingam came to Australia separately by boat in 2012 and 2013 and their daughters Kopika, 4, and Tharunicaa, 2, were born in Australia.
The granting of a late Federal Court appeal saved them from being deported last week and the family is now in detention on Christmas Island.
But Mr Morrison said 1,500 people have already been sent back to Sri Lanka under the same circumstances and prior the current court process, the family’s claim had repeatedly been “found to be invalid”.
“(The family) were never told they could settle in Australia, they were aware of that the entire time, and while I understand the deep human issues around this, you have got to think about the implications for this,” he said.
“It went through every court, to our highest court in the land and every single one of those courts upheld the decisions that were taken.”
Mr Morrison said there were increasing push factors driving people out of Sri Lanka and the government would not risk encouraging more people to attempt to enter Australia by boat.
“The worst possible thing you can do was to send a decision, send a message which said, you know what — if you come illegally to Australia, and the courts say you don’t have a claim, and the Government say you don’t have a claim, then the Government just might make an exception because there’s been a public reaction … that’s not how you run strong borders,” he said.
“I know what happens when you send those messages back into those communities, whether it’s in Sri Lanka or the more than 10,000 people sitting in Indonesia right now who would get on a boat tomorrow if they thought this Government was changing its position.”
Mr Morrison said he understood the “real feeling” about the Tamil family’s case but he also knew what the consequences of an exception would be.
“They can return to Sri Lanka and they can make an application to come to Australia under the same processes as everyone else, anywhere else in the world,” he said.
“And I would hope they do. But they didn’t come to the country in the appropriate way.
“(But) to exercise intervention powers on this, would be to send exactly the wrong message to those who are looking to sell tickets to vulnerable people looking to get on boats.”
Earlier Jones slammed the Australian government’s treatment of an asylum seeker family as “beyond disgraceful” while asking the prime minister to practise some "practical Christianity".
Jones’ comments follow impassioned pleas from protestors calling on the government to save the Tamil family from deportation.
Jones has come out in defence of the family despite Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton’s explanation to News Corp Australia that the asylum seeker threat was “very real” and the family had to go.
Jones revealed he had written to Mr Morrison asking for some “practical Christianity” while slamming Mr Dutton’s behaviour.
“I find the government’s behaviour on this, and that of Peter Dutton, beyond disgraceful. Is this the same Peter Dutton, and Immigration Minister David Coleman, who personally intervened last year to stop two au pairs who were to be deported,” Jones told 2GB listeners.
“The former deputy secretary of the immigration department is on the record as saying, in the last 72 hours, it is quite clear that if you look at the ministerial guidelines this case meets those guidelines more clearly than the two au pair cases, in which Minister Dutton acted within hours.
“Ministerial intervention powers are designed to cater to where a person’s not met the legal requirement for a visa but because of humanitarian or national interest grounds the government intervenes.”
Thousands of Australians protested over the weekend in a bid to urge the government to release the family from detention. Lawyers for the family said they were moved from Darwin to the Christmas Island detention centre in the early hours of Saturday morning. This is where the mother, Priya, allegedly sustained heavy bruising on her arms. She also has a blood pressure condition and said she was not receiving medication while at the facility.
Mr Dutton told News Corp Australia the Tamil family were not refugees and had to be deported.
“In every case the detail is scrutinised and on compassionate grounds yearly we help literally thousands of people including the primary applicant as well as their family members,” Mr Dutton said.
“The case of the family from Sri Lanka is also a complex case and has attracted a lot of media attention with many false claims by refugee advocates and Labor opportunists.
“Labor initially put them into detention and they were told all those years ago that, on the details they provided, they were not refugees under the UN definition so they would have to go home.
“They have gone on to appeal to the Federal Magistrates Court, the Federal Court and the High Court, costing the Australian taxpayers millions of dollars.
“They have explained their circumstance to every decision maker and Judge and every one of them has rejected their claim for protection.
“That is that they are not refugees.”