Throsby MP Stephen Jones has defended the government's new hardline stance on asylum seekers, saying it is a difficult but necessary plan to deter refugees arriving in Australia by boat.
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Under Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's new plans, announced on Friday, asylum seekers who arrive in Australia by boat will be sent to Australia's Manus Island processing centre in Papua New Guinea for assessment.
If found to be refugees, they will be permanently settled in PNG with no chance of settlement in Australia, Mr Rudd said.
"There's parts of [the plan] which I think will be difficult, to be frank, but I hope it works," Mr Jones said yesterday.
"Because if it works it means we don't have people coming to Australia by irregular means, risking their lives and others'.
"It means we will be able to give priority to people in our very generous settlement program that we determine are in the best need of asylum, not the people who are able to pay for passage to Australia by boat."
Labor's plan has been criticised by human rights advocates who have questioned PNG's ability to provide protection for asylum seekers, after the country opted out of United Nations commitments to provide refugees with freedom of movement, education, housing and employment.
Mr Jones said he felt "some compassion" for refugees affected by the PNG arrangement.
"People who thought they were going to be buying a passage to a new life in Australia are going to be very disappointed ... and you wouldn't be human if you didn't have some compassion for people in that circumstance," he said.
"But we can't have a situation where the ability to purchase passage from a broker in Tehran, or other places throughout the world, guarantees you a position in Australia's humanitarian program while those who are wallowing in camps have no chance."
NSW Greens MP Cate Faehrmann, who is in the Illawarra campaigning with local Greens candidates today, rejected Mr Jones’s arguments, labelling the plan simply disgraceful.
‘‘[It’s] obviously a move by [Mr] Rudd just to win an election – it’s so disappointing,’’ Ms Faehrmann said.
‘‘To think that instead of trying to show leadership in a way that’s compassionate he has taken the easy way out, which is to essentially treat [asylum seekers] as almost nothing more than animals. What he is doing is just so appalling – it’s a sorry, sorry day for our country.’’
She described Mr Rudd’s plan as ‘‘single-minded’’, and believed it was merely an attempt to nullify Tony Abbott’s stance without considering the people.
‘‘Papua New Guinea has so many problems. If I was to visit tomorrow, I would need to be travelling with armed guards, I’d be staying in a compound. I would not be walking the streets by myself,’’ she said.
‘‘To think about refugees in any way trying to get ahead in PNG, it’s just not going to happen. I think it’s going to lead to awful conflicts, awful violence – [Mr Rudd] really has gone too far.’’
