Julia Gillard defends former government’s track record on asylum seekers

IN A rare public interview, Julia Gillard has opened up about her government’s policy on a controversial issue, admitting she has no regrets.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard delivers her victory speech after been given the numbers to form the new government in hung par...

FORMER Labor prime minister Julia Gillard has defended her government’s asylum seeker policy.

In a public interview on Al Jazeera’s Upfront program, Julia Gillard responded to questions about Labor’s stance on asylum seekers between 2010 and 2013, ultimately saying she “stands by the decisions made”.

“The government I led was trying to do everything it could to deter people from getting on boats,” she said.

“Our message to people who were desperate and fleeing hard circumstances was we are going to take refugees, but don’t try and make the journey by boat. You may not survive. Your children may not survive.”

Ms Gillard said the reopening of Manus Island Nauru immigration centres had been necessary to stop illegal people smuggling.

“You don’t quite know what it’s like as prime minister to get the telephone call from your defence forces that tell you that they suspect that an asylum seeker boat has gone down,” she said.

“Whatever they do, people die.”

She said she believed her government’s “hard line approach” had a humanitarian underpinning, in that it deterred people from getting on a boat and risking their lives at sea.

“We took a set of decisions in a very difficult time when we were seeing increasing numbers and we were worried about deaths.

“We had a policy that I wanted to pursue which was a co-operative arrangement with Malaysia. I was blocked by the Parliament from doing that.”

This was a reference to the Gillard Government’s ‘Malaysian Solution’ proposal in May 2011, by which Australia would swap 800 asylum seekers in detention centres for 4000 confirmed refugees awaiting resettlement in Malaysia.

On August 31 that year, the High Court ruled the proposal invalid, leaving 335 asylum seekers stuck on Christmas Island.

Labor’s current position on the issue mirrors that of former prime minister Tony Abbott’s, who systematically refused Australian resettlement for any asylum seekers who arrived by boat.

Originally published as Julia Gillard defends former government’s track record on asylum seekers