At 8.06 this morning it was done: the House of Representatives passed the government’s Migration and Maritime Powers Legislation Amendment (Resolving the Asylum Legacy Caseload) Bill 2014, following its passage and amendment just after midnight in the Senate. Parliamentarians then got to go home for Christmas, having delivered the Immigration Minister extraordinary powers that in effect obliterate any further pretence that Australia regards asylum seekers as human beings.
The bill restored the failed Howard-era policy of temporary protection visas, a mechanism that actually increased boat arrivals when last attempted. Whether Clive Palmer seriously believes that there is a pathway to citizenship contained in a kind of homeopathic form within the legislation — or it merely suits its purposes to pretend there is — we don’t know, but Scott Morrison has been crystal clear that TPVs will never provide permanent protection.
But the bill goes much further, freeing Australia from any obligations associated with the Refugee Convention, including giving Morrison and his department — which has repeatedly demonstrated it is profoundly incompetent and resistant to the most basic forms of accountability — the power to return people to torture and persecution without judicial review.
That the passage of such a bill was only secured with the blatant use of blackmail, in which Morrison used detained children as hostages to be bartered for Senate compliance, says much about the wretched contents of the bill, about the complete amorality of the government and about the depths to which it has needed to sink in order to give itself a win on which to end a wretched year. That crossbench senators like Ricky Muir, Nick Xenophon and the PUPs gave in to such threats, however, is a reflection entirely on them. Their ostentatious anguish at having to deal with such a choice can’t hide the grim reality of their actions.
The bill is immoral, it’s bad policy, and it’s been passed using the lives of children as bargaining chips. The division lists in the Senate and the House of Representatives will be a roll call of shame in years to come.
47 thoughts on “Crikey says: refugee bill an immoral disgrace”
drsmithy
December 6, 2014 at 4:10 pmIt is bastardry like this that tempts me, as a life-long anti-theist, to wish that there really was a Hell as I’m sure Dante would have needed an extra low, low level for Morriscum and his enablers.
Well, if there is he’ll certainly be headed for it. Have a read of his maiden speech to parliament to see just how grotesque his character is:
http://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/search/display/display.w3p;query=Id%3A%22chamber%2Fhansardr%2F2008-02-14%2F0045%22
drsmithy
December 6, 2014 at 4:16 pmChildren became bargaining chips the moment their parents put them on a leaky boat to come to Australia.
No, they didn’t.
They were *made* bargaining chips. Up until that point they were just children with parents desperate to help them.
Morrison is offering a way to get them out of detention.
Morrison could have them out of detention tomorrow if he wanted to, without any of this shameful, morally bankrupt behaviour.
Norman Hanscombe
December 6, 2014 at 4:33 pmdrsmithy, in light of your continuous flow of curious quibbles [this time re “became” and “were made”] you’re not doing anything to convince even the more gullible readers that you understand basic language use let alone the far more complex issues relating to your fervently held beliefs.
valerie blair
December 6, 2014 at 6:24 pmPeople arriving by boat off Italy in numbers larger than we ever see, are treated so humanely! We havnt seen much of this on the news lately ” . Being suppressed ?
CML
December 6, 2014 at 6:57 pmTo be fair, Valerie, hundreds of these people coming from North Africa, across the Med to Italy, drown every month.
And I don’t agree that these asylum seekers are welcomed with open arms when they reach the island of Lampedusa.
The locals are anything but friendly.
If you want to hear what is going on in this arena, listen to the BBC, broadcasting through ABC News Radio late evening and weekends. Some of the stories they report would curl your hair. Dozens/hundreds drowning in some boats, and a less than adequate ‘search and rescue’ system in place.
Truth is, Europe doesn’t want these ?refugees any more than Australia or other western countries do! Sad but true!!
Norman Hanscombe
December 6, 2014 at 7:08 pmValerie, had you followed the news more carefully you’d realise that while there was once a fairly relaxed attitude towards boat arrivals, that changed long ago.
David Hand
December 6, 2014 at 7:46 pmThe boat people on the Med are transiting through Italy heading north.
Ken Lambert
December 6, 2014 at 9:31 pmThe hypocrisy of the bleeding heats bashing Morrison is breathtaking.
Are you all bashing Prof Gillard and Rudd and Carr as well? These Labor giants were the authors of the Malaysian solution, The East Timor solution, then the Nauru solution, and a Rudd special…the PNG solution.
Even your old mate and well informed Foreign Minister Bob Carr made heavy of the fact that most if not all of the boat arrivals were economic migrants.
Here is the moral position for Crikey’s leftist hypocrites…they would rather see a refugee place taken by a $10000 smugglee, paying a corrupt Indonesian trail of officials and criminals, than a poor internee of UN camps all around the region without a razoo, coming to Australia under an official program.
Morrison has broken the smugglers and restored some respect for Australia’s borders as well as stopping deaths at sea and halving the numbers of children in detention and now eliminating those with TPV’s.
Well done Morrison.
End of story.
drsmithy
December 6, 2014 at 10:13 pmAre you all bashing Prof Gillard and Rudd and Carr as well? These Labor giants were the authors of the Malaysian solution, The East Timor solution, then the Nauru solution, and a Rudd special…the PNG solution.
Yes. In fact, I’m fairly sure exactly the same criticisms were levelled against them for their equally grotesque “solutions”.
Even your old mate and well informed Foreign Minister Bob Carr made heavy of the fact that most if not all of the boat arrivals were economic migrants.
Well then, if Bob Carr said it, it MUST be true.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-08-14/no-evidence-bob-carr-economic-migrants/4821544
Here is the moral position for Crikey’s leftist hypocrites…they would rather see a refugee place taken by a $10000 smugglee, paying a corrupt Indonesian trail of officials and criminals, than a poor internee of UN camps all around the region without a razoo, coming to Australia under an official program.
Ad hominem, straw man, false dichotomy.
Congratulations, you got the fallacy trifecta !
Morrison has broken the smugglers and restored some respect for Australia’s borders as well as stopping deaths at sea and halving the numbers of children in detention and now eliminating those with TPV’s.
Indeed. Those deaths at sea are so icky when they’re close enough that you can see them. Much more acceptable when they happen way over the horizon.
Norman Hanscombe
December 6, 2014 at 10:42 pmKen, it’s not the “end of story” as you say because they’re reading from a different book, even if it’s a fairy story. Crikey acolytes help balance the equally myopic comments from Alan Jones et al on the rabid right.