Labor to rethink temporary protection visa stance: Keneally

Kristina Keneally flags her party abandoning its resistance to temporary protection visas.

Labor's home affairs spokesman and Deputy Leader in the Senate Kristina Keneally. Picture: Kym Smith

Labor’s new home affairs spokeswoman Kristina Keneally has opened the door to her party abandoning its decades-long resistance against temporary protection visas.

The former NSW premier issued a mea culpa today in an attempt to rebrand herself as tough on borders after Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton said she owed the Australian public an “explanation” over her inconsistent positions on border protection.

Senator Keneally has today said Labor’s stance on abolishing TPVs would be among a suite of policies Anthony Albanese and the shadow cabinet will review before the next election.

“That has been our policy and it remains our policy until we change it. As Anthony Albanese has made clear we’re going to have a review of all our policies,” she told Melbourne’s 3AW radio.

“We’re going to go through a process, you wouldn’t expect me to make policy on the run … the implications (of ending opposition to TPVs) will be considered as part of shadow cabinet.”

Abolishing TPVs has been a key Labor immigration policy ever since they were introduced by John Howard.

On Labor’s website, the party’s policy on asylum seekers is stated as: “Abolishing Temporary Protection Visas (TPVs) which keep people in a permanent state of limbo and placing those found to be genuine refugees on permanent protection visas.”

Senator Keneally told The Australian she has disavowed her previous comments from several years ago that she “instinctively disliked” boat turnbacks, supported onshore processing and wanted a royal commission into Australia’s treatment of asylum seekers.

“Let’s be clear, Labor fully supports boat turnbacks when safe to do so, regional resettlement and offshore processing,” Ms Keneally told The Australian.

In July 2015, Ms Keneally wrote an opinion piece against boat turnbacks, saying it was cruel to tow boats away from Australia when people were attempting a perilous journey to seek asylum. “Such action dishonours our past commitments to compassionate welcome and ­violates our international treaty obligations,” she wrote in Guardian Australia.

Speaking after the shadow ministry announcement yesterday, Senator Keneally said she was now comfortable with boat turnbacks but not all Australians were.

“Boat turnbacks are an essential part to making sure people don’t drown at sea,” she said.

“I have been comfortable with them since I wrote that article. That article was an honest reflection on what was a discomfort with the idea that a government was taking a measure that appeared harsh and to many Australians it does appear harsh. It was an honest reflection that it was the correct thing to do to disrupt the people smuggling trade and save people’s lives. We cannot have a system whereby thousands of people risk their lives and drown at sea. That is not what a humane and compassionate nation should allow to happen in its region.”

Labor leader Anthony Albanese, who has also opposed boat turnbacks in the past, said today that Ms Keneally’s previous attacks on offshore processing were due to her Catholic faith.

“It is not surprising that someone like Kristina Keneally coming, as she does from her background, in terms of her 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.”

In another column, from February 2015 in the wake of the ­Forgotten People report about Australians who experienced institutional care as children, Senator Keneally outlined why she believed there was cause for a royal commission into asylum-seekers and offshore detention.

“A royal commission would lay bare what damage Australia, under governments of both political stripes, has done to asylum seeker children. It would make clear recommendations on how we help those we have hurt and on how to avoid making the same mistakes again,” she wrote. “It might be next year, it might be in 10 years or in two decades, but in our lifetime there will be a royal commission into Australia’s treatment of asylum seekers. Our children and grandchildren will wonder how we allowed it all to happen.”

Ms Keneally said she no longer supports a royal commission into offshore detention, after Mr Albanese was quick to dismiss it yesterday.

“No, in short when that was written it was in the context of the Forgotten People report which quite heavily focused on the treatment of children in offshore detention. You will recall at the time the government was using children in detention to bargain for unrelated Senate legislation and there was no particular indication that anything was going to change in terms of the treatment of children and treatment of people in offshore detention.”

Ms Keneally pointed to another current parliamentarian, Liberal MP Tim Wilson, who also strongly supported the findings of the Forgotten Children report at the time of its release when he was Human Rights Commissioner.

She said her opinion on a royal commission mellowed after the government removed children from detention and former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull struck a people swap deal with the US, removing a significant number of people from offshore detention.

“I would hope that the government works with the US to see that as many people as possible leave Manus Island and Nauru. New Zealand has put forward an offer to take 150 people and there is a solution to the special visa class question. If the government wanted to meet with New Zealand today they could.”

Mr Albanese said he wants the government to do more to find regional resettlement options for asylum seekers still on Manus Island and Nauru.

“What they need to do is find third countries of settlement. We have been saying that for a very long period of time. The government has knocked back offers for third countries of settlement. You can’t leave people in detention indefinitely forever. There is an economic cost of doing so.”

In January 2017, a year before she replaced Sam Dastaryi as a Labor senator for NSW, Ms Keneally wrote that one solution to closing the Manus Island and Nauru detention centres would be to “bring the refugees to Australia”.

“ … there is a solution to Turnbull’s Nauru and Manus Island problem that doesn’t depend on the whims of an idiotic and unpredictable US president: bring the refugees to Australia. If the boats have stopped because of turnbacks and other efforts, why does Australia need to keep detaining refugees in offshore detention facilities? Don’t say it’s “pull factors”.

There is no difference between sending Nauruan and Manus refugees in a “one-off deal” to the US, or bringing them in a “one-off” deal to Australia,” she said.

Ms Keneally yesterday clarified that she wasn’t calling for asylum seekers to be brought to Australian, but merely pointing out it was an option.

“My point was there was a solution and if the government didn’t take it up, then they needed to find another solution,” she said.

In December last year, Ms Keneally was one of the Labor senators who voted 22 times in support of the Medevac Bill without amendments and without a security briefing, but said today she would be a tough adversary for Immigration Minister Peter Dutton.

Within hours of Mr Albanese announcing Ms Keneally as his opposition counterpart, Mr Dutton called her appointment a “hospital pass”, saying there is “nobody less qualified on border protection in the Labor Party”.

“Mr Albanese must have a great sense of humour,” he said.

Ms Keneally fired back, claiming Mr Dutton has allowed people smugglers to change their business model from boats to planes.

“Peter Dutton makes a lot of noise about the fact that the government has stopped the boats. In reality Scott Morrison stopped the boats and Peter Dutton has been taking credit for it ever since,” she told The Australian.

“Peter Dutton has also fundamentally failed in his administration of the department of Home Affairs. He’s lost control of our borders at the airport. He’s lost control of visa and citizenship processing. He’s lost control of his budget. And he’s lost control of his department.”

Ms Keneally said the number of so-called “plane people” has soared to over 81,000, and far succeeds the number of people who came by power during Labor’s five years in power. She said as a result visa processing has slowed significantly and over 200,000 people, compared to just over 90,000 in December 2013, are living in Australia on bridging visas and clogging up the system.