Opposition divided over temporary visas
Updated
Australia's Opposition leader Malcolm Turnbull's suggestion to bring back temporary protection visa arrangements to discourage boat arrivals has stirred up old resentments within his party.
One of the Liberal MPs who led the charge against John Howard's refugee policies has spoken out again. The former New South Wales minister and retired federal MP, Bruce Baird, says it would be totally unacceptable to return to the old system. He says a considerable number of moderates within the Liberal party feel the same way.
Presenter: Emma Griffiths
Speakers: Malcolm Turnbull, Liberal Party leader; Bruce Baird, former Liberal Party member; Bob Debus, Home Affairs Minister
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EMMA GRIFFITHS: The Opposition leader says the number of asylum seekers coming to Australia has dramatically increased since the Government abolished temporary protection visas last August.
And Malcolm Turnbull wants to talk about bringing them back.
MALCOLLM TURNBULL: TPVs should be high on the agenda for discussion.
EMMA GRIFFITHS: Temporary Protection Visas were introduced by the Howard government. They allowed asylum seekers to stay in Australia, but didn't give them refugee status.
The move triggered a loud and ugly row within Liberal ranks.
And for those who fought against it then, this talk of a revival is a backward step.
Bruce Baird was one of them. He left Parliament at the last election but remains an active Liberal Party member.
He says a return to temporary visas would be inhumane.
BRUCE BAIRD: It's not on to return to that.
We have moved on as a country.
We have recognised the injustice of the previous system, and that's the way it should be.
EMMA GRIFFITHS: How much support do you think there is within the Liberal Party then, largely within its membership in the branches, for this sort of regime coming back in?
BRUCE BAIRD: Well, I've got no idea. There's been no polling or head count or vote on it, but I certainly would be aware that a lot of people, particularly the moderates within the party, would find it totally unacceptable.
EMMA GRIFFITHS: It's not something the Government is considering.
The Home Affairs Minister Bob Debus.
BOB DEBUS: The fact is that the introduction of temporary protection visas actually encouraged people smugglers, and their unfortunate clients, to come to Australia.
That's why you had those boats full of women and children, because the temporary protection visas encouraged the migration of a whole family.
The fact is that it didn't work.
EMMA GRIFFITHS: And with the discussion now fired up again, Malcolm Turnbull seems ready to shift his thinking.
MALCOLM TURNBULL: We approach this challenge, this policy challenge with an open mind.
So yes, TPVs, or perhaps I should put it a different way - a different visa category, reinstating a different visa category for unauthorised boat arrivals should certainly be high on the agenda.
But whether going back to the TPVs in precisely the form they were before August is the appropriate course of action would depend on the evidence and advice and the intelligence assessments.
EMMA GRIFFITHS: How are you going to handle some upset on your backbench then about putting this back on the agenda?
MALCOLM TURNBULL: There's always been a range of views in the Liberal Party on this issue, so that's nothing new.
We encourage free debate and free discussion, and we have that, we have that range of views.
We don't all have the same opinion on every issue, but we debate it, people have different views, and then we come to a common view.
