Labors Immigration Paper
 

Do not give up Labor could be in power soon so theres always hope?

Labor today released its long-awaited immigration policy, promising a United States-style green card in an effort to crack down on illegal workers.

Opposition Leader Simon Crean also promised shorter periods of mandatory detention for asylum seekers, and said they could be released to live in supervised hostels once they had passed security and health checks.

Mr Crean said Labor would also speed up the processing of asylum seekers, with 90 per cent of claims to be dealt with inside 90 days.

He said overhauling Labor's asylum seeker policy was one of two goals he set for his first year as leader, along with reform of the party structure.

"This was a policy that caused great angst to party membership in the last election (and) it's one that has continued to be raised in all of the party forums," he told reporters.

Mr Crean said he always recognised immigration was going to be a tough area to reform, and was pleased with the final recommendations of the internal party committee to the Labor caucus.

The policy has been endorsed by shadow cabinet, but it will be debated by the wider Labor caucus over the coming days.

Mr Crean said he would not pretend there was unanimous support for the new policy, but there had been no blood spilt so far in caucus, which was told details of the policy today.

"The meeting today was very constructive, it was very civil, there was no rancour and there was a genuine desire on the part of people to question the detail, to understand the detail better," Mr Crean said.

"And whilst I am not pretending that there are not differences of opinion in some of the policy areas, they will be issues that will be resolved in the caucus on Thursday."

Mr Crean said a Labor government would also introduce harsher penalties to smash people smuggling rings, improve airport security and treat asylum seekers who arrived by air the same way as those who arrived by sea.

Although mandatory detention would continue, Labor would close the Woomera detention centre and stop exporting asylum seekers to Australia's Pacific neighbours.

He said national security was Labor's top priority, but there also was a need to treat asylum seekers more decently.

"The underpinning objective in terms of this policy is to ensure that they're (asylum seekers) treated decently, that we do the right thing," he said.

"Doing the right thing means securing our borders and treating them decently."

Re: Labors Immigration Paper
 

With Crean as leader of the ALP and Howard's approval ratings ...?? Somehow I don't think so.

In any event, I believe the Government is planning to overhaul its detention policy in a change that looks surprisingly similar to the ALP's proposals:
http://www.theage.com.au/articles/20...712831132.html

And don't expect Crean's proposals to be accepted so readily by the rank and file in the party.

Re: Labors Immigration Paper
 

Here's the response of the Democrats to the ALP's proposals:
http://www.democrats.org.au/news/ind...2268&display=1

Do Simon Crean and his policy-making colleagues in the ALP have any original thoughts? The ALP's policies will be indistinguishable from the Government's soon - or maybe that's their plan. After all it worked in the UK.

Regards.

Re: Labors Immigration Paper
 

If you look at Victoria Labor could walk it maybe little Johnnys luck is runing out?
:D :cool:

Re: Labors Immigration Paper
 

No, I don't think so. The "Bracks factor" was a major factor in Victoria, as was the continuing fallout from the Kennett years. The Shadow Treasurer not registering for the vote and thereby making himself ineligible to be a candidate didn't help either - that alone must have made people doubt whether the Libs had an ability to govern.

The other point I heard made on the TV at the weekend is the fact that the Libs/Nats are currently preferable to the populace on the issues which are dealt with Federally (immigration, defence, etc), while the ALP is preferred on issues dealt with at State level such as health, education, etc. That might be stating the obvious seeing as how all the States and Territories are Labor, but I can see some logic as to why people feel that way.

Best regards.

Re: Labors Immigration Paper
 

Re: Labors Immigration Paper
 

I think people vote according to gut feeling , little Johnny used the boat refugees as a tool to get re-elected plus big fat Kim was a fool not to be trusted .
All parties out stay their welcome its time for a change not everyone is happy with the market forces way of runing the country, welfare here is a big issue that the Libs do not relate too .



:D :cool: