Sunday 16 December 2018


Labor vows to abolish temporary protection visas 

Published: 11 December 2018 



More than 10,000 asylum-seekers who arrived in Australia under the border policies of the Rudd and Gillard governments would be given a pathway to citizenship under a Shorten government. Source: The Australian.

The pledge to end Labor’s boat arrivals hangover by offering the remaining asylum-seekers permanent residency through the abolition of temporary protection visa system came as The Australian established that the cost of managing the ongoing caseload of applicants had reached more than $2 billion.

Figures obtained by The Australian through the Department of Home Affairs showed that, at the end of last month, 10,600 asylum-seeker cases, of the 30,000 inherited by the Coalition in 2013, remained pending.

Bill Shorten’s office said that under the Opposition Leader’s policy, which is expected to be reconfirmed at next week’s ALP national conference in Adelaide, the “legacy caseload” of asylum-seekers would be granted permanent protection under a Labor government. This would give immediate permanent residency with full work and welfare rights to the remaining asylum-seekers, regarded by the Morrison Government as illegal arrivals because they travelled by boat.

It would also end the last remnants of Labor’s 2008 policy.

“We’ll have our national conference; I am determined that the people-smugglers don’t get back into business,” Mr Shorten said.

“We will work as the government has to maintain strong borders; turning boats back where it is safe to do so; we are committed to regional processing, full stop. But what I also believe is that, after five-plus years, this government should have done more to resettle people elsewhere around the world than they have, and that’s what we’ll do.

The government says TPVs were a vital deterrent in stopping people-smuggling operations and preventing them from restarting. Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton said the cost of the legacy caseload would keep growing with a third of the outstanding cases since 2013 still to be processed.

“Labor’s reckless border failures have cost our country dearly,” Mr Dutton said. “Cleaning up the dreadful mess of 50,000 illegal arrivals is costing us hundreds of millions of dollars a year, and will for years to come.”

FULL STORY

Labor’s asylum vow: you can stay (The Australian

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/latest-news/dutton-flags-refugee-bill-security-risks/news-story/f1a3a0b49a9ae3b9a7eea810e9061107