Private Members’ Business

The majority voted against a motion introduced by Liberal MP Scott Morrison, which read:

That this house:

(1) notes that:

(a) the Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees (Refugees Convention) states that ‘contracting States shall apply the provisions of this Convention to refugees without discrimination as to race, religion or country of origin’;

(b) the Government suspended the processing of asylum seeker applications from Afghanistan on 9 April 2010; and

(c) there are more than 5000 persons currently being detained by the Department of Immigration and Citizenship on the mainland and Christmas Island;

(2) condemns the Rudd Gillard Government for their imposition of a discriminatory freeze of the assessment of asylum applications for persons from Afghanistan arriving in Australia; and

(3) calls for the introduction of proven policies proposed by the Coalition to address unprecedented irregular maritime arrivals to Australia, including:

(a) the application of temporary visas for all persons who have arrived illegally in Australia;

(b) the reopening of a third country processing centre in Nauru for irregular maritime arrivals to Australia;

(c) being prepared to turn around boats where the circumstances permit;

(d) streamline the appeals process by removing the panel system and replace with a review by a single case officer as practiced by the UNHCR;

(e) presuming against refugee status determination for persons who are reasonably believed to have destroyed or discarded their identity documentation; and

(f) return unsuccessful claimants for refugee status to their country of origin.