Australia's Prime Minister under pressure over asylum seekers

Linda Mottram, Canberra correspondent

Last Updated: Wed, 28 Oct 2009 20:33:00 +1100

Australia's Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd is under mounting pressure over his handling of a group of Sri Lankan asylum seekers on board an Australian customs ship.

The issue, driven by the conservative opposition parties, has dominated debate in the Australian Parliament.

Opposition parties have repeatedly claimed the government has lost control of Australia's borders.

Australia's opposition parties have also leapt on newspaper headlines declaring Prime Minister Rudd's deal with Indonesia, to help stem the flow of asylum seekers by boat, is all at sea.

Discontent within government ranks

Of more concern to the Australian government though could be creeping signs that its own ranks are displeased.

Julia Irwin, a Labor Member of Parliament, is advising her leader to follow the example of a past, conservative Australian Prime Minister who faced an influx of Indo-Chinese refugees in the 1970s.

"Why can't we now sit down, opposition and government, in a bipartisan way...people tend to forget, these are human beings, these are people who are trying to come to Australia," she said.

"It's absolutely disgusting that we are not sitting down with the opposition in a bipartisan way."

When Ms Irwin was asked if she thought the Sri Lankan asylum seekers should be brought to Australia, she replied that if they were found to be genuine refugees, they should be.

Trade unions critical

There's also growing criticism from Labor's traditional support base, the trade union movement.

Leader of the Australian Workers Union, Paul Howes has accused the government of failing to rise above racism.

"I didn't join the Labor Party to discriminate against the most vulnerable people in the world," he said.

Mr Howes has also called on Kevin Rudd to show leadership and to change the debate over asylum seekers.

The head of the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union, Dave Oliver has also criticised Mr Rudd's handling of the issue.

"What we advocate is a humane solution, and having 78 refugees on a leaky boat is not the way to go," he said.

"We've got a small number of asylum seekers arriving here by boat and [hysteria] is being whipped and we're being translated to some of the issues and debates we had 15 years ago and that's wrong place to be."

There is concern in the ranks of the Rudd ministry and backbench that there appears to be no easy win on this issue, with some Rudd government staff probing, in private discussions, for hints of a way out.

So far, it's a low level rumble, with Mr Rudd still well ahead in opinion polls, giving him a lot of political capital on an issue where a tough image can be popular.

Human rights perspective

From the perspective of the international human rights watchdog, Human Rights Watch, Kevin Rudd's explanation that the Sri Lankans should go to Indonesia because the were picked up in Indonesian waters, is not good enough.

Human Rights Watch Asia Director, Brad Adams says Australia can't be proud of sending asylum seekers to a poor country with inadequate resources and a poor record.

"If we look back at what happened to the Burmese Rohingya who went in large numbers to South East Asian countries last year, many of them ended up in camps in Indonesian, in very appalling conditions," he said.

"There were beatings in camps that have been verified and documented. And the conditions were so bad in some of the camps that many of the people being held in them escaped, many of them tried to escape repeatedly and finally did escape."

"Some of the camps are basically depopulated, the conditions are so bad."

It's a scenario that has union leader Paul Howes predicting some in the Rudd government, who have failed to speak up, will one day regret it.