Fed: Labor to begin thrashing out asylum policy today
CANBERRA, Feb 11 AAP - Labor MPs will start thrashing out a new asylum seeker policywhen they return to Canberra today.
Three months after an election loss, said to be largely on the back of the government'shardline stance towards asylum seekers, Labor is set to dump part of its support for thegovernment's policy.
First to go is expected to be support for the Pacific solution of sending asylum seekersto either Papua New Guinea or Nauru for processing.
The meeting today of the Labor caucus follows a Human Rights and Equal OpportunityCommission report which found Australia in breach of international conventions on thetreatment of children.
Opposition Leader Simon Crean cautioned it might take time to come up with a new policy,but it was important to give MPs a chance to express their views.
"Our members want to have that discussions, but what I'm heartened by is the extentto which people accept that we can develop the approach that is tough on border protectionbut compassionate at the same time," he said.
"We'll work our way through that. It may take time, but I want to get it right."
Prime Minister John Howard signalled the government would not soften its stance, insteadquestioning the motives behind a request by United Nations Human Rights Commissioner,Mary Robinson, to send a special envoy to look at the conditions at the Woomera detentioncentre.
"You might start to wonder whether there is some agenda being run. I don't know, butwe're going to talk about it," he said.
He also defended a policy which has led to the 13 month detention of a mother and herfive children despite her husband already being recognised as a genuine refugee.
AAP sw/cjh/br &
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