Labor should oppose the Kerryn Phelps bill

Labor should block the medivac legislation and leave border control policy to the government instead.

Bill Shorten says Labor is inclined to support independent MP Kerryn Phelps’s private member’s bill that will see control of our borders taken from the government and handed to a couple of medicos.

As Chris Kenny points out, Labor has already supported Phelps’s measures in the Senate (“Phelps knows no better, what’s Labor’s excuse?”, 7/2).

If the bill is passed in the parliament next week, and Labor gains office in May, the only winners will be the people smugglers. A continuous wave of boats will arrive on our shores, and we’ll be back where we started when Labor was in control.

The founder of the Australian Democrats Don Chipp, referring to the major parties, promised to “keep the bastards honest”.

When it comes to Labor on election day, voters should keep the “bastards” out.

Dale Ellis, Innisfail, Qld

Offshore detainees are, not surprisingly, unhappy after spending years on Manus and Nauru. Exaggeration of their living circumstances, that are better than refugee camps elsewhere, could now provide the ticket to entry to Australia.

Once here, they and their families would resist being returned to offshore detention via legal avenues.

The government is elected to deal with such matters and has the right to make sure its humanitarian approach does not continue to be a backdoor to entry.

The bill proposed by Kerryn Phelps would weaken its authority further, encourage rorting of the system by refugees and activist doctors, and as ASIO has warned, (“Phelps bill a security risk, Australian, 6th Feb) increase the security threat to our country.

Graham Pinn, Maroochydore, Qld

The people smugglers must be rejoicing as they fill their boats with people seeking refugee status. Passage of Kerryn Phelps’s bill would be the first step in dismantling a highly successful border protection regime.

By the end of this year we could see more boatloads of asylum-seekers, more children back in detention and more deaths at sea as the people smuggling industry cranks up under a Shorten-led government.

N. Bailey, Nicholls, ACT

Chris Kenny sums up admirably the bill Kerryn Phelps wants to foist on to the parliament. Labor and the Greens will support it with all their might, not caring about the damage it will do to Australia.

Independents should realise that they have as much responsibility as those in major parties to safeguard Australia.

In my opinion there should be no place for them in Australian politics: they have no loyalty because they are lone wolves, needing the attention and the glory.

Patricia M. Smith, Mt. Martha, Vic

Doesn’t it occur to the media that, with the party system becoming more dysfunctional, at least some of the independents may be bona fide?

The public is fed up with both major parties, and only a smattering here and there support the minor parties, which have narrow agendas.

History evolves. Let’s move on. The political parties will cling to power as long as they are able. The media alone has the power to persuade the people that there is hope for change.

Meg Mack, Chermside, Qld

For a pair of medicos to have the say over whether a refugee needs medical treatment on the mainland is open to unacceptable manipulation. Kerryn Phelps has run away with the idea doctors are automatically beyond reproach and have the wisdom of Solomon.

Rosemary O’Brien, Georges Hall, NSW

If we needed further proof of how dangerous the Greens and Independents are, then look no further than Kerryn Phelps’s harebrained idea to let doctors take over our immigration portfolio. With the support of the Greens this threat to our national security will override our elected representatives. The Labor party has a chance to defeat this bill and show it cares more about the country than its own interests.

Larry Piscioneri, Benalla, Vic

The notion that the medivac bill to treat asylum seekers onshore for serious illnesses would be a security risk, sounds like a slap in the face to the specialised medical practitioners who decide on the illnesses that require onshore treatment.

Henry Herzog, St Kilda East, Vic