Shadow Immigration Minister Sharman Stone would not say whether a coalition government would reintroduce temporary protection visas, saying only that it was a mistake for the government to abolish them.
Any weakening of the coalition’s immigration policy will be fiercely resisted in the opposition’s conservative wing, with some Western Australian senators and MPs complaining of increasing heat from WA voters after the recent spike in unauthorized arrivals.
When asked whether the opposition would bring back overseas processing and detention of refugees, Stone said yesterday she was satisfied with the processing being done on Christmas Island.
“We built Christmas Island detention centre and we excised migration zones and it would seem that Christmas Island is serving the purpose adequately enough,” she said.
“We had to establish that response (offshore processing) when we had thousands of people coming. Our policy managed to turn off the taps.”
She said the Rudd government should not have abolished temporary protection visas but she would not say whether they should be reintroduced.
“We’re firmly of the opinion that announcement of the abolition of TPVs led to this latest surge,” she said. “If we were in government, we would not have abolished them, given the expectation they could encourage people smugglers.”
Stone said all coalition policies were under review, including Howard government immigration policies.
Asked whether she agreed with former Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock that refugee boats could be sent back to Indonesia, she said that would be considered case by case.
“The minister has a very difficult responsibility of looking at the circumstances of the day, whether lives are being lost and whether our border security is compromised,” she said.
Western Australian Liberal Judi Moylan cautioned her party against whipping up hysteria over people smugglers and boat people, urging that recent arrivals be kept in perspective.
She backed the government’s abolition of protection visas and questioned claims by Liberal leader Malcolm Turnbull that dumping them sparked the recent rush of boat people.
“I would urge for there not to be undue scare campaigns run on this particular issue. I think it is very unhelpful,” she said.
Temporary protection visas were introduced in 1999 as a signal to asylum seekers that refugee status was not permanent.
