August 11, 2006
Petro Georgiou said that the Migration Amendment (Designated Unauthorised Arrivals) Bill, under which all asylum seekers arriving in Australia by boat would be sent to island detention centres like Nauru for processing, was the most profoundly disturbing legislation he had encountered as an MP. He added that the Bill did not reflect the tradition of providing sanctuary to those in danger and it 'does not uphold the deeply held Australian values of giving people a fair go and of decency and compassion.'
Liberals crossing the floor is very rare these days under the Howard Government, given the iron discipline that has been put in place. The voting against the bill symbolises the survival of the Liberal left--social liberals.
Sharpe
The moderate Liberals rightly say the asylum seeker legislation reverses the hard-won promise by John Howard last year to keep children out of detention by placing them in community-based homes. They also say asylum-seekers will be blocked from access to Australia's legal appeals processes if they are held offshore, and argue that their detention could be indefinite.
The debate on the asylum seeker legislation was gagged and then guillotined through the House of Representatives yesterday by the government. Those who defend the legislation make the national interest in the form of border protection an absolute. In doing so they reject international order with rules that regulates the behaviour of nation states, and turn their back on the freedom of conscience in the Protestant tradition. They do not welcome party differences of opinion, as they stress the rights of the passionate majority, and call former minister Judi Moylan disloyal (and place her pre selection under threat) because of her principled opposition to the Government's hardline policies on asylum-seekers and children in detention.
As Norman Abjorensen observes in the Canberra Times ' the right, which is now preponderant within the Liberal Party, is not prepared to entertain any peaceful co-existence with the Petro Georgious and Judi Moylans and so they will be hounded and purged from its ranks.'
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