Rudd misleads public over PNG deal: Clive Palmer Prime Minister - TopicsExpress

Rudd misleads public over PNG deal: Clive Palmer Prime Minister Kevin Rudd had misled the public and threatened to destroy Australia’s strong friendship with Papua New Guinea over his hard-line stance against asylum seekers, Clive Palmer said today. The federal leader of the Palmer United Party has accused Mr Rudd of rushing through his controversial Manus Island solution in a deliberate ploy to deceive the people of PNG and Australia. “The PNG deal done with Prime Minister Peter O’Neill was done at a time when the PNG cabinet was not sitting and is completely flawed,’’ Mr Palmer said. “The PNG Parliament is not reconvening until September 10 when Rudd’s extremely unpopular Manus Island policy would have faced certain rejection by that country’s government. “That is why Rudd called the Australian federal election for September 7 – he knows he would have been left with egg on his face because the people of PNG simply don’t want the deal. “In recent days we have seen Immigration Minister Tony Burke visiting Nauru to explore new options in the South Pacific because of substantial opposition from the PNG community over the Manus Island deal. “The flawed policy not only wastes billions of dollars of taxpayers’ money but does little to fix a very serious problem and seriously risks damaging Australia’s strong friendship with PNG forged on the Kokoda Trail. “Rudd and Abbott are taking shortcuts to win and are making disgraceful decisions about the asylum seeker issue on the fly which lack empathy and common sense.”