Abbott misleading public on boats: The Abbott government is misleading the public as it hails 100 days passing without an asylum seeker boat arriving on Australian shores, a high-profile human rights lawyer says. Julian Burnside QC, who is challenging the legality of detaining asylum seekers on Nauru, says the government is failing to tell the full story about boat interceptions. We know that a number of boats have been intercepted and the people on board have been placed into orange life rafts and sent back, he told AAP on Saturday. If the message theyre getting across is that asylum seekers arent trying to get to Australia any more, the answer to that is yes, theyre misleading the public. Hailing the 100-day milestone, Prime Minister Tony Abbott said deterrence measures had worked. Its too early to declare the job has been done but nevertheless we can safely say that the way is closed, he told reporters in Sydney. But the prime minister conceded the absence of boat arrivals did not mean there hadnt been attempts to make the journey, without revealing how many vessels had been turned back by Operation Sovereign Borders. Labors immigration spokesman Richard Marles said the absence of asylum seeker boats was a credit to the former Rudd government. Mr Burnside said both major parties were at fault on asylum seeker policy. It means that the Labor Party finished its time in government with very shabby policies, he said. The barrister is visiting the Gold Coast on Saturday to address a Bond University dinner.
Posted on: Sat, 29 Mar 2014 20:52:59 +0000
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