Peter Dutton gives voters a say on refugee intake

Immigration Minister Peter Dutton has invited the public to have a say on Australia’s humanitarian immigration intake.

Immigration Minister Peter Dutton says ‘the consultation process will inform the government’s decision about the size and composition of the program’. Picture: Kym Smith

Immigration Minister Peter ­Dutton has invited the public to have a say on the “size and composition” of Australia’s humanitarian immigration intake.

Mr Dutton yesterday issued a general call for submissions for the government’s annual pre-budget consultations on the ­humanitarian program, which is normally conducted in quiet consultation with refugee, church and ethnic community groups.

“Australia has a proud record of resettling refugees and people in humanitarian need from around the world,” he said. “The consultation process will inform the government’s decision about the size and composition of the program.”

Refugee Council of Australia chief executive Paul Power, whose organisation has made submissions each year since 1987, had no qualms about advertising the process to the public.

However, Mr Power said, the government should especially heed the advice of community ­organisations that had “specific ­knowledge” of the issues. “In preparation for our submission, we’ve had consultations in 17 cities since August,” he said.

Ian Rintoul, a spokesman for the Refugee Action Coalition, suspected the government’s intention might have been to encourage “anti-refugee” submissions from the broader public.

However, he expected the submissions would overwhelmingly support a more generous refugee program, citing public concern about the Syrian crisis and the fate of asylum-seekers facing deportation to Nauru. “A lot of people will be quite willing to put their voices to calls for a fundamental change of direction on refugee ­issues,” Mr Rintoul said.

The 2015-16 humanitarian program comprised 13,750 places, with at least 11,000 for people overseas (including 1200 women at risk) and the balance for onshore applicants who arrived in Australia legally. The Coalition has pledged to increase the size of the program to 16,250 places in 2017-18 and 18,750 places in 2018-19. In addition, the government is accepting 12,000 refugees from Iraq and Syria.

Labor promised to double the intake to 27,000 places.

Mr Dutton said Australia ranked in the top three resettlement countries each year, along with the US and Canada. “Since 1947, Australia has welcomed more than 825,000 people from different countries under the humanitarian program in response to changing global resettlement needs,” he said.

The government has released a discussion paper on the Department of Immigration’s website.