Senate debates offshore processing

15 Aug 2012, 8:29 pm   -   Source: AAP
Australian Greens leader Christine Milne has slammed a move to rush the federal government's new offshore processing legislation. (AAP)

Australian Greens leader Christine Milne has slammed a move to rush the federal government's new offshore processing legislation. (AAP)

Debate on urgent legislation for offshore processing of asylum seekers has kicked off in the Senate.

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The Senate has begun debating urgent government legislation reinstating offshore processing centres for asylum seekers.

The draft laws, which allow the government to reinstate processing centres on Nauru and Manus Island in Papua New Guinea, passed the House of Representatives before question time on Wednesday.

The government and opposition will team up to ensure the legislation sails through the Senate but a vote is not likely until Thursday night or the early hours of Friday morning.

Senate opposition leader Eric Abetz said the bill was not ideal but was moving in the right direction.

He foreshadowed that opposition senators would cut short their debate contributions in order to get the legislation passed quicker.

"If Nauru is to work we need policy conviction and commitment," Senator Abetz said.

Senator Abetz said "indefinite detention" must be on the agenda.

"The boat people will need to join the queues and wait in line," he said.

Debate on the Migration Legislation Amendment (Offshore Processing and Other Measures) Bill 2011 continues.

Australian Greens leader Christine Milne said the government and coalition were trying to outdo each other in the cruelty stakes.

"The whole message is `we do not want you in your country - we will punish you if you come here'," she said.

"No amount of punishment that we give people is going to be worse than the situation they are running from."

She said there was no "orderly queue" of people running away from persecution.

Senator Milne urged the government to increase the humanitarian intake of refugees.

"Australia takes less than two per cent of the worlds' refugees," he said.

Labor Senator Doug Cameron said he backed the legislation "with a heavy heart" as it was inferior to the bill considered in June that was rejected by the Greens and coalition.

"That bill was far from perfect, but it provided for, in my view, a better policy outcome than does this bill," he said.

Senator Cameron said the Greens' political puritanism and complete unwillingness to make any compromise on their principles meant this bill, rather than better legislation proposed in June, would now come into force.

"Here we are with Nauru and Manus Island staring us in the face because of ... the political immaturity and intransigence of the Greens," he said.

However, Senator Cameron said the greatest shame lay at the feet of the coalition.

"The inflammatory rhetoric never misses a beat. They rail at asylum seekers, the dog whistle is turned up to full volume," he said.

Greens senator Richard Di Natale said federal parliament was making a grave mistake.

"A mistake that generations to come will find very difficult to understand," he told the Senate.

Senator Di Natale said there were many good parliamentarians who had wrestled with their consciences, listened to the arguments and formed the view that punishment was necessary because it acted as a deterrent to others.

"They are wrong but they are driven by good intentions," he said.

Australia had a long and sometimes deeply shameful race history, he said.

"It is hard for me to escape the fact that race is one part of the equation when it comes to immigration policy," Senator Di Natale said.

"We decide who comes to this country and the circumstances in which they come has nothing to do with concern for the most vulnerable people on this planet and everything to do with the sort of cold hearted attitudes, with the sorts of sometimes racist attitudes that have driven this debate."

Debate was adjourned at 8pm and the Senate rose until 9.30am on Thursday.

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