The Refugee Action Coalition has welcomed Labor\u2019s stand against Turnbull\u2019s attempt to impose a lifetime ban on asylum seekers and refugees sent to Nauru or Manus Island ever entering Australia.<\/p>\n
Turnbull\u2019s lifetime ban proposal was always a political stunt from a government that is sinking further in the opinion polls. <\/p>\n
Labor\u2019s stance makes it almost certain that Turnbull\u2019s bill will be defeated. It is a welcome first sign that the days of bipartisan support for offshore detention are ending.<\/p>\n
Turnbull\u2019s latest political stunt may fail but there is still no solution for the 1500 people imprisoned on Nauru and Manus.<\/p>\n
Labor\u2019s opposition to the lifetime ban has now exposed the gaping hole at the end of offshore detention \u2013 that after three years and four months, there are no \u201cthird countries\u201d willing to resettle refugees from Manus or Nauru.<\/p>\n
Peter Dutton has repeatedly claimed that the government is in negotiations with \u201cthird countries\u201d \u2013 but no country is ever specified.<\/p>\n
Dutton\u2019s big lie was starkly revealed when both the President of Nauru and the Foreign Minister of Papua New Guinea appealed for international help to resettle refugees at the recent UN summit on refugees.<\/p>\n
He said in September that the government\u2019s first priority was resettling \u2018women and children\u2019 from Nauru \u2013 but discussions are always indeterminate and no country is ever specified.<\/p>\n
Labor leader Bill Shorten called Turnbull\u2019s lifetime ban \u201cludicrous\u201d. It is just as ludicrous to insist on third country resettlement when there is none.<\/p>\n
Rather than continue to call for third country resettlement, Labor must join the call for all asylum seekers and refugees to be brought to Australia.<\/p>\n