Refugee ban laws face opposition as bill goes before Parliament

NEW laws to ban refugees who arrive by boat from ever settling in Australia will be blocked by Labor, with Bill Shorten calling them a ‘solution looking for a problem’.

Immigration Minister Peter Dutton faces a challenge getting his new refugee laws through Parliament. Picture: AAP Image/Lukas Coch

NEW laws to ban asylum seekers who arrive by boat from ever settling in Australia — or even visiting as a tourist years later — look doomed with Labor labelling them a “solution looking for a problem”.

Opposition Leader Bill Shorten announced on Tuesday Labor had unanimously voted to block the proposed laws, which are set to be introduced to Parliament later in the day.

“We are on a unity ticket with the Government to stop the people smugglers, but we are not on a unity ticket to stop the tourists,” Mr Shorten said.

“The Government has not established the case that says current laws are not working.

“In many ways, the Government’s latest proposals are a solution looking for a problem.”

Under the proposed laws, any adult who has been sent to Manus Island or Nauru since July 2013 will be resettled in another country and will never be able to visit Australia on any visa, including as a tourist.

Children who come with or without a parent by boat will be exempt.

The ban will be backdated to July 19, 2013, when then Prime Minister Kevin Rudd declared:

“As of today, asylum seekers who come here by boat without a visa will never be settled in Australia.”

In a party meeting on Tuesday morning, the Labor caucus voted unanimously to oppose the proposed laws.

Mr Shorten said Labor would not put forward any amendments but oppose the laws outright.

Opposition leader Bill Shorten says Labor will oppose the refugee legislation. Picture: AAP Image/Lukas Coch

Earlier, Shadow Treasurer Chris Bowen accused the government of playing politics rather than trying to stop people smugglers.

“It was only a couple of weeks ago that Malcolm Turnbull was boasting that the boats had stopped, that they’d done everything necessary,” he said on ABC’s AM program on Tuesday.

“Now all of a sudden, out of the blue, they say ‘Oh actually, now this is necessary too.”

Immigration Minister Peter Dutton said Labor needed to do what was in the national interest as the threat “had not subsided”.

“If Labor don’t support the visa change legislation, they are destined to repeat their past failures and return to border chaos,” the Minister tweeted.

Speaking earlier on ABC’s AM program, Mr Dutton said the Government was not open to Labor putting forward amendments to the proposed laws.

“We have stopped successful boat arrivals, we have turned almost 30 boats back, we’ve got 14,000 people in Indonesia, all of the intelligence indicates that if people see the green light to get to Australia again ... there would be tens if not hundreds of thousands of people coming from Europe, making a trek into Jakarta or into Kuala Lumpur or other markets to get onto boats to come here,” Mr Dutton said.