John Howard has dumped his immigration "reforms". The law change would have seen all refugee claimants who arrived by boat processed in offshore camps, and denied entry to Australia even if they were found to be refugees. This was too much even for the atrophied moral sense of Australian MPs, and the bill was facing defeat in the Senate after several government Senators declared they would cross the floor. So, rather than face a humiliating defeat, Howard has dumped it completely.
I guess sometimes the good guys win after all...
3 comments:
Fantastic news. It really was people power. The main campaign against this was from "Get Up" who got around 100,000 signatures opposing the bill. And had their supporters calling and visiting senators. http://www.getup.org.au/campaign.asp?campaign_id=30 Let's hope they can be as successful on other issues.
Posted by Anonymous : 8/15/2006 09:30:00 AM
Yeah, and by dropping this on the floor, Howard avoids having ever having had his own MPs officially cross the floor against him. Historically, Liberal MPs have done far more of that than they have under Howard, and it would appear he wants to keep it that way.
If those MPs really had a moral spine, they would speak out against unaccompanied children being chucked in mainland detention centres.
Posted by Chris : 8/15/2006 10:48:00 AM
Sometimes they do.
Posted by Peter Cresswell : 8/16/2006 09:39:00 AM
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