Lanai Scarr,Lauren Novak,Gemma Jones and Jessica Marszalek
The Daily Telegraph
August 16 2013
TONY Abbott has given his clearest time frame yet as to when he will be able to stop the boats should he be elected prime minister on September 7.The opposition leader today said that by the 2016 election levels of boat arrivals would be back down to the last days of the Howard era when there were just three arrivals a year.
"That's my confidence," he said.
"Obviously idea is having zero boats but if we were able to get it down to three boats a year that would be a good thing."
More than 50,000 Illegal VOTE people have arrived on boats under Kevin 07/ Gillard/Kevin 07 Labor/Green Loon Independent / "Co Party Government"
Mr Abbott and his immigration spokesman Scott Morrison today unveiled more detail on the Coalition's border protection policy, as revealed by News Corp Australia today.
Under the Coalition plan, anyone who arrives in Australia illegally by boat will not get permanent residency, including more than 30,000 people already here.
Anyone arrivals "reasonably believed" to have destroyed their documentation would not be accepted.
A new assessment process, based on a UK model, would see faster removal of illegal arrivals.
Those found to be refugees would be granted temporary protection visas.
They would not be allowed to bring their family to Australia or convert the TPV to permanent residency.
The TPV would last three years after which holders would have to apply for another visa if it was not safe to return home.
They would be required to work for the dole.
The Coalition has also pledged to scrap a $58 million detention centre planned by Labor for Singleton in NSW.
However the Opposition Leader could not rule out that asylum-seekers given refuge in Australia on temporary protection visas would not one day be permitted family reunions.
"I can't say what might happen in ten, twenty, thirty years time," Mr Abbott said.
"But what I can say is if you come here by boat you should never expect to get permanent residency.
"If you turn out not to be a refugee you will be in detention, that's where you'll be. If you are a refugee you will be on a temporary protection visa and you should expect to be on it indefinitely."
Mr Morrison said he was confident the new process would stand up to any future court challenges.
"This is a complicated and detailed area," Mr Morrison said.
"I am very confident that we will get this as right as it can be."
COALITION TO SCRAP ASYLUM APPEALS PROCESS
The removal of failed asylum seekers from Australia would be dramatically fast tracked under a hardline Coalition plan to send them packing in as little as three months.
And any of the 30,000 boat arrivals already in the country who have been found to be genuine refugees would denied a permanent visa.
The Coalition would also scrap plans for a detention centre at Singleton in the NSW Hunter Valley, where Labor plans to house more than 1000 people, and divert almost $60 million to build 2000 places it has promised for offshore processing in Nauru.
Opposition immigration spokesman Scott Morrison plans to adopt a hardline UK-style removal regime and to scrap the refugee review tribunal.
ASYLUM SEEKERS FIND THEIR OWN SOLUTIONS
Asylum seekers would be "triaged" and those considered unlikely to be found to be refugees taken into detention, pending a review by up to two departmental case workers which could take as little as 28 days.
The removal process would be modelled on a scheme in the United Kingdom called Detained Fast Track, Mr Morrison said.
Those considered unlikely to be refugees would have their first assessment inside detention finished within 14 days and if it found against them they would then be able to access a 14 day review by another case worker.
PNG HAS ROOM FOR 10,000 ASYLUM SEEKERS - RUDD
The process would take no more than three months, a Coalition policy document shows.
A failed review would result in the government seeking travel documents in order for the person to be removed.
Failed refugees from countries, such as Iran which refuses to accept involuntary returns, would be left on the Christmas Island indefinitely.
"If there are issues with them being removed from the country we will send them to Christmas Island until they can be removed," Mr Morrison said.
PNG LOOKS AT ASYLUM SEEKER JOB SCHEME
Mr Morrison said the 30,000 asylum seekers who arrived before Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's announcement of the PNG Solution, and who are waiting in the community for their refugee claims to be processed, would be made to work for welfare payments.
They would all be moved onto temporary protection visas for up to three years and given work rights with a work for the dole style regime used in cases where they were unable to secure a job.
Asylum seekers could also be directed to regions where more work was available.
The temporary visas would prevent them bringing family to Australia and if they chose to leave they would be barred from returning, in a policy mirroring the Howard Government's temporary protection visas.
"They won't get a protection visa from us, they will be desperately hoping a Labor government gets elected," Mr Morrison said.
He said a Coalition government wanted to scrap the refugee review tribunal to help achieve its policy of "getting out of the country" people rejected as refugees under its single case worker review model.
Courts and tribunals have overturned up to 80 percent of departmental decisions to refuse a protection visa and cases have had to be re examined, Mr Morrison said.
"Our objective would be to get back to a single case officer decision and review system," he said.
In addition to other hard line measures, boat arrivals who came without paperwork would be rejected as refugees if it was found they had deliberately thrown their identification out.
About 90 per cent of people have arrived without paperwork at times under the current government.
The Coalition says the investment in a new detention centre for Singleton wasn't needed.
"Under the Coalition, offshore processing will be done on Nauru and PNG, not in Singleton," Mr Morrison said.
"That's why we will shut down Labor's plan to spend almost $60 million at Singleton and create that capacity where it's needed offshore.
"Kevin Rudd is making more room for people coming illegally on boats in Australia, at places like Singleton than he is offshore on PNG."
Mr Morrison said scrapping Singleton would allow the Coalition to fund plans it announced last month to house an extra 2000 asylum seekers in
Nauru, including accommodating refugees in refurbished homes in the nation's slum district while Australia searched for third country resettlement options.
Almost 2500 asylum seekers have arrived in almost a month since Mr Rudd announced his PNG solution with only a few hundred sent to Manus Island after health checks so far.
Single adult men have been sent to the remote island while the government works to bring accommodation up to standard for families.
More than 50,000 people have arrived on boats under Labor.
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