http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/new-detention-centre-to-open-in-tasmania/story-fn59niix-1226033937113

INDEPENDENT MP Andrew Wilkie has hit out at plans to open a new immigration detention centre in southern Tasmania, saying he is opposed to keeping people behind barbed wire.

The key crossbencher, whose support is critical for Ms Gillard's minority government, was only told about the 400-bed centre by Immigration Minister Chris Bowen this morning - hours before it was announced.

He said he would hold Labor to its commitment that the centre only be temporary.

The temporary centre will be opened next month at a defence facility at Pontville, about 30km north of Hobart, to ease pressure on Christmas Island.

The facility - to be upgraded at a cost of $15 million - will initially accommodate 250 asylum-seekers, expanding to house 400 single men.

Mr Bowen said the centre would consist of army dormitory buildings, with temporary buildings brought in as needed.

He said the Pontville site was a short-term response while work was completed on detention accommodation at Wickham Point in Darwin, and at Northam in Western Australia.

“The government has acknowledged the pressures on our detention facilities and this new accommodation will help to relieve the strain on the system,” Mr Bowen said.

“Following the incidents and loss of detention capacity at Christmas Island, Pontville presents an appropriate contingency option for detention accommodation.”

He said the standard of accommodation would be in line with that at other detention centres.

Mr Wilkie said the establishment of the centre was further evidence the government's asylum-seeker policy was in disrepair.

“I have long opposed mandatory detention anywhere and this facility will be no different,” Mr Wilkie said in a statement.

“These are people who have knocked on Australia's door seeking asylum and it is wrong to cage them behind wire, whether it be in Pontville or Christmas Island.

“I'll be holding the Immigration Minister, Chris Bowen, to his commitment that this centre only be temporary.”

Mr Wilkie called for a more sophisticated solution that addressed problems in the source countries from which the asylum-seekers were fleeing, and in the transit countries through which they passed to come to Australia.

Tasmanian Premier Lara Giddings also said she had written to Mr Bowen seeking assurances about the treatment of asylum-seekers at Pontville.

Ms Giddings said she was concerned about how the asylum-seekers would be looked after during the region's notoriously cold winters.

“I want to ensure that the principles that are articulated by the commonwealth government in relation to the care of asylum seekers,” she told reporters in Hobart.

“If there are to be detainees there on commonwealth land, I want to ensure that those detainees have adequate heating, clothing and any other needs they may have.”

Opposition Immigration spokesman Scott Morrison said the opening of a temporary facility in Tasmania represented a deepening crisis in Australia's detention network.

He cast doubt over whether the centre at Pontville would be temporary.

“Labor has now announced 5,300 new detention beds since the last election, covering all points of the compass. The only place they are not building a detention centre is in East Timor, which is where they promised to build one,” Mr Morrison said.

“The government has a rolling crisis in their detention network, which has forced them to embark on a `building the detention centre revolution' all around the country.”

Liberal senator Eric Abetz likened the detention centre to resuming the transportation of convicts to Van Diemen's Land.

“The Tasmanian people have a right to ask, 'didn't we get rid of transportation to Van Diemen's Land quite some time ago?',” he told reporters in Hobart.

“It shows that the government has lost control and Hobart has become the frontier of detention facilities.”

The Gillard government has opened more than 5000 new detention places since the 2010 election.

This includes major new or expanded facilities in Western Australia at Leonora and Curtin, at Inverbrackie in South Australia and at the Scherger RAAF base at Weipa, in far north Queensland.

The Immigration Department is dramatically downgrading the capacity of Christmas Island after mass escapes, rioting and fires led the Australian Federal Police to take control of the centre last month.

The total number of asylum-seekers on the island - including a family camp - will be slashed from a peak of more than 3000 last December to 1280.

nich

Gillard warned we can expect a tough cost cutting budget coming up

I guess we can see where this money is going

Along with all the other wastes they have incurred not including the NBN has now ballooned out past the $36B

It was great to hear that the Mayor was so excited about the idea, and has some actually good ideas about integration - something that is so desperately required for immigration to work.

It was also interesting to note that most people who were interviewed on the news and were against the idea were sporting a fantastic mullet, had a slab of Red Bitter over their shoulder and a can in their hand.  

Soren wrote on Apr 6^th, 2011 at 9:11am:


I think what is truly needed is a new haircut, Soren

People have a human right to seek asylum - you need to get this through your thick skull and into your frontal lobe. And when people gain asylum, which they have every right to do, it is up to everyone to create a harmonious society - hence it's not just that person's responsibility to integrate - it's the responsibility of all of us.  The Mayor Tony Foster has the right idea.

Soren wrote on Apr 6^th, 2011 at 9:57am:


9 out of 10 are genuine refugees.  You need to once again pass this through your thick skull and into your frontal lobe. I know it's pretty thick, but you need to try.  For your own sake.

AS for temporary protection visas, what a load of extreme crap.  "Yes, come set up your life ... oh wait... now go away!"

BTW: for your own knowledge: Malaysia is not a Refugee Convention signatory.  Just for your own knowledge.  And as for Indonesia, considering even the worse treatment that refugees receive there I can completely understand why someone would try to bypass the country.  Have you seen their camps? Refugees are not criminals - they don't deserve to be treated like they are. Otherwise we should chuck bigots and bogans into the same circumstances as anything, on the scales of humanity, bigots and bogans rank about ... 0.1.

I'll say it again - it is time we had a referendum on the idea of Australia withdrawing from the UN 1951 Refugee Convention.

The last time I mentioned this, I noticed the do gooders like 'alevine' and 'philperth' disappeared back into the woodwork without any comments.

Come on, guys - surely you can't see a problem with that? Resolve this issue once and for all by finding out what the Australian people want.

After all, we are supposed to be a democratic country where Governments listen to and obey the will of the majority, aren't we? (Yeah, right).

Soren wrote on Apr 6^th, 2011 at 10:18am:


Refugee assessors are highly skilled, and I can assure you that when my sister was working for the UN and assessing refugee claims, she was rejecting 8 out of 10.  So don't go telling me that there is this mass conspiracy and so on.  Stop reading high right-wing propoganda and actually worry about what can be substantiated.  It makes you look like a total nut.  Are you a total nut?

As for asylum, it is re-settlement.  Now you may sit there with your bigoted views and claim that these people should be sent back; I say that resettlement means allow the person to move on with their life and settle themselves. At the end of the day there is no harm to me. There is no harm to the economy. And there is no harm to this country.  

In fact, the harm to this country is in REAL ISSUES, such as our growing bogan population.  Go look at Illawarra, and the fact that 193 kids are getting removed from their homes this year. Last time I checked Illawarra did not have a huge immigrant population.  THAT IS A REAL ISSUE.  Not this. So move on and get out of your bigotism.

The greens in tassie should be over the moon with the idea that the reffos are going to their part of the woods. It'll be an added boost to their basket case economy as well.

So now that tassie is a hot bed of green politics they should be happy to take  take ALL of Australia's reffos and look after them the way they see fit and proper. 

Come on brown and your fellow taswegians, you know you want to show us how it's done