Abbott Renews Calls on Immigration Policy Compromise
Fresh reports of boat refugees intercepted anew by Australian authorities on Monday prompted new calls from Opposition Leader Tony Abbott for Prime Minister Julia Gillard to finally adjust her immigration policy.
As two boats were reported by immigration officials, reported by The Canberra Times to be carrying more than 50 passengers and crew, Abbott stepped up his urgings on Ms Gillard to scrap her offshore processing scheme for refugees that involve Malaysia.
Abbott stressed that the Prime Minister may be getting it wrong by being adamant on her proposed Malaysian solution, which has been ruled against by the Australian High Court.
The Coalition, he pressed on, will never accept the Malaysia part of the deal, adding that "if the government wants us to agree to Malaysia I'm afraid it's talking to the wrong people."
"Our job is not to make a weak compromise with a bad government," the Canberra Times quoted Abbott as saying.
Late last year, leaders from the Coalition and the Labor met to discuss possible compromise that would finally settle the country's border protection policy, with Federal Treasurer Wayne Swan suggesting that the government is willing to consider the Nauru component of the solution.
The meat of the deal is the reopening of the Nauru detention centre, where asylum-seekers will be brought for processing instead of Malaysia.
The talks, however, stalled with both parties insisting on their respective stance, with the federal government pushing for the inclusion of its Malaysian plan while the Coalition insisting that the best answer to the problem is the policy once implemented by the then Liberal government of John Howard.
Abbott said on Tuesday that if the government wishes for its immigration questions to finally get answers then it must scuttle its earlier position and adopt the Howard formula, which includes the issuance of temporary protection visas for refugees trying to reach Australian shores.
According to Michael Keenan, the acting immigration spokesman for the opposition, the solution to the whole issue "is readily available to the Labor Party if they are prepared to embrace it."
"If they were smart, they would just embrace our policies, because that would actually give them the result that Australia needs," Keenan told the Canberra Times.