THE Labor candidate vying to replace Julia Gillard as Lalor MP has condemned the federal government’s latest asylum seeker policy as a vote-grabbing election fix.
Joanne Ryan said the policy of resettling all asylum seeker boat arrivals in Papua New Guinea had been “driven by an agenda I don’t subscribe to”, adding she hoped it would be dumped after the September 7 election.
The plan increases Australia’s humanitarian intake from UN refugee camps to 20,000, with a possible rise to 27,000.
“If the PNG solution delivers us a Labor government and the opportunity to increase our humanitarian intake, it would have been a compromise worth making, as long as that beyond the election we can step back from it,” Ms Ryan said.
Under the new policy, every asylum seeker who arrives in Australia by boat without a visa will be sent to PNG for processing and possible resettlement.
Ms Ryan is concerned the policy, which she says is “driven by people’s fear”, appeared to fly in the face of Australia’s obligations under international law.
She also said work rights for asylum seekers living in the community on bridging visas should be reinstated in the wake of the PNG solution, because the ban was no longer needed as a deterrent.
The impact of the work ban has been particularly felt in Lalor, where welfare groups such as Werribee’s UnitingCare and the Salvation Army have faced a massive increase in demand for emergency relief,
UnitingCare Werribee Support and Housing ran out of food vouchers for the first time in 13 years, saying it couldn’t cope with the extra demand of groups of up to 150 asylum seekers being released into transitional housing at Tarneit every six weeks since August 2012.
Asylum Seeker Resource Centre’s Jana Favero said a work ban for up to five years was creating an underclass of future Australians.
