Refugee advocates commend MPs with conscience

10 August 2006

National refugee policy organisation, A Just Australia, today commended the three Coalition MPs who crossed the floor to oppose the federal government's asylum-seeker offshore processing legislation (the DUA bill).

"By voting against this legislation, Judi Moylan, Petro Georgiou and Russell Broadbent have demonstrated their respect for the agreement that was reached between the federal government and the Australian people that children would never again be detained and that we need to create a fairer system for processing asylum-seekers," said Anna Samson, A Just Australia's Acting National Coordinator.

"While it is tempting to see the actions of these three MPs as controversial, the real controversy is the federal government's willingness to push ahead with legislation that ignores the views of human rights groups, legal experts, welfare agencies, the UNHCR, church leaders, refugees who have spent time on Nauru, the recommendations of the Palmer Inquiry and the recommendations of the Senate Inquiry chaired by Coalition Senators."

"We hope that Coalition Senators will take the lead from their Lower House colleagues, stand up for values of compassion, fairness and justice, and vote against the DUA bill when it reaches the Senate.

"Men, women and children who are fleeing persecution and whose first place of asylum is Australia do not deserve to be indefinitely imprisoned in Nauru or returned to persecution because the Australian government refuses to honour its legal and moral obligations."