Labor facing rank-and-file revolt over asylum-seeker policy

Labor is facing a grassroots revolt over refugee policy, with city and country branches calling for sweeping changes.

An asylum seeker boat crashes at Christmas Island in 2010.

Labor is facing a grassroots revolt over refugee policy, with city and country branches calling for sweeping changes to the largely ­bipartisan border protection and offshore processing regime ahead of the NSW Labor annual conference.

The Australian has obtained more than a dozen motions submitted by Labor Party branches to the annual conference on June 30 and July 1 at the Sydney Town Hall. Not one motion supports the party’s current policy in full.

The motions show the party leadership is out of step with the views of members, who want a clear statement of support for the principles advocated by the Labor for Refugees internal lobby group and the restoration of “a fair and humane policy on refugees and people seeking asylum”.

These motions show the party’s rank and file are uncomfortable with the suite of tough policies that provide for offshore detention and processing of refugees, and boat turnbacks that are designed to deny landfall to refugees seeking asylum as a deterrent to taking the hazardous journey in the first place.

There is also concern over the “demonisation” of refugees by the government and their treatment in detention. Labor branches want a future Labor government to redouble efforts to establish a more effective regional framework for dealing with asylum seekers in partnership with the UN.

A policy document prepared by Labor for Refugees has the support of many party branches.

It calls for, among other things, a royal commission into “the abuses of men, women and children” in detention; the right for protection claims to be assessed in Australia and the abandonment of offshore detention; and a clear 12-month timetable for determining claims for protection with judicial appeal rights under Australian law.

While motions support “maintaining essential maritime activity to prevent people-smuggling”, party members want Labor to commit to “immediately” closing “all offshore detention facilities” and relocating all remaining refugees to Australia, New Zealand or the US.

One party branch calls for a future Labor government “to revisit its policy of never allowing asylum seekers arriving by boat to settle in Australia” because they argue it breaches international human-rights obligations and causes unremitting “suffering and misery”.

Labor branches believe there is evidence of widespread “medical negligence” in the Nauru and Manus Island centres and want a future Labor government to review the provision of medical care to refugees and a new contract awarded for such services.

The party’s social-justice and legal-affairs policy committee has not recommended a detailed position on the party’s asylum-seeker policy ahead of the state conference later this month, but has supported several motions “in principle”.

Labor is keen to avoid a public showdown on refugees at the state conference — where the right faction will have a large majority of delegates — wanting to leave it to be determined by the rescheduled national conference on December 16-18 at the Adelaide Convention Centre.

However, The Australian has been told Labor for Refugees will liaise with faction leaders about presenting an “urgency motion” to the state conference that will seek to shift the party’s policy towards a more “humane” stance.

It is seen as an important signal ahead of the national conference.