Andrew Giles distances himself from asylum seeker motions

Kristina Keneally’s right-hand man on immigration recently tried to change Labor’s asylum seeker policies. Now Andrew Giles says he has changed his mind.

Kristina Keneally’s right-hand man on immigration has distanced himself from his previous pushes to weaken Labor’s border protection policies.

Andrew Giles, who has been appointed the Opposition’s assistant immigration and citizenship spokesman, attempted to change Labor’s asylum seeker policies as recently as six months ago.

Mr Giles put forward a proposal at Labor’s national conference in December to re-open thousands of asylum seeker cases which had already been rejected.

Opposition assistant immigration and citizenship spokesman Andrew Giles.

The Victorian MP also spearheaded a push at Labor’s 2015 conference to reject boat turnbacks — a key pillar of Australia’s border protection regime — because they were “inherently unsafe” and “clearly contrary to our international obligations”.

Both motions were defeated and Labor currently has a policy of turning boats back where it is safe to do so.

Mr Giles on Monday told the Herald Sun he supported all current Labor policies on asylum seekers.

“We dealt with that issue (boat turnbacks) in 2015,” Mr Giles said.

“I fully support the policy we adopted in 2015 … as was made most clear by me — along with every other delegate — making no attempt to change (the policy) at last year’s conference.”

Labor's Deputy Leader in the Senate Kristina Keneally.

It comes after Senator Keneally, who was this week appointed the Opposition’s home affairs and immigration spokeswoman, was forced to backtrack on her previous opposition to offshore processing.

At last year’s ALP national conference, Labor members voted down a motion moved by Mr Giles that would have given asylum seekers rejected under the Coalition’s fast-track process access to an independent merits review.

Asked about the move, Mr Giles said: “I support the policy adopted at national conference.”

Labor leader Anthony Albanese.

New Labor leader Anthony Albanese on Monday defended Senator Keneally’s previous attacks on offshore processing, saying they were made because of her Catholic faith.

He said the party under his leadership would advocate for “secure borders without losing our humanity”.

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“It is not surprising that someone like Kristina Keneally coming, as she does from her background, in terms of faith, like many of the leaders of the Catholic and other communities are concerned that people on Manus and Nauru have been there for a very, very long period of time,” Mr Albanese told the ABC.

“Now, the government needs to sort that issue out. They are now into their third term. You can have secure borders without losing our humanity.”

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