Refugee intake should increase by 50 per cent, Immigration Minister says

UPDATE 11.07am: THE Opposition says a proposal by Immigration Minister Chris Bowen to increase the refugee intake by 50 per cent would cost the government $1.35 billion over four years.

Mr Bowen will propose at the Labor Party's national conference this weekend to increase Australia's resettlement of refugees from 13,750 to 20,000.

"I have had the view for some time that we could and should take more refugees," Mr Bowen told ABC Radio.

"It's an aspiration ... there's no timeline that I'm putting on it," he said.

"I just think it's very important that the Labor platform, which is after all a statement of broad objectives, has that objective in it for the first time."

Immigration spokesman Scott Morrison said the proposal would cost the government $1.35 billion over four years.

"He wants to increase the refugee intake each year," Mr Morrison told Macquarie Radio.

"He wants to do this deal with the Labor left to get support for his already failed Malaysian people swap."

Mr Morrison said the government was capitulating to the Greens.

"More and more people are getting on each individual boat at the moment, which is increasing the risk for those people...

"This minister has simply lost control."

Liberal MP Kelly O'Dwyer said lifting the refugee intake was another Greens policy Labor was keen to introduce.

"(And) it's the policy of distraction," she told Sky News.

"It's something they said they were going to fix, they haven't fixed it, now they're looking to the next issue."

Mr Bowen said Australia's refugees intake was the highest per person of any country in the world.

"But that doesn't mean I don't think we can do more still," he said.

He said his proposal would make it clear that Labor's view was to take more refugees.

"We want to give more people a life in Australia but we need to tackle the dangerous boats coming to Australia," Mr Bowen said.

"Then we can have that conversation with the people of Australia to increase our refugee intake further."

Mr Bowen said the offshore processing of refugees had to be one of several measures to reduce the number of people jumping onto boats heading to Australia.

"Just increasing your refugee intake is not a deterrent to getting on a boat to come to Australia, but if it is part of a broader mix, which included offshore processing, that would be important," he said.

Labor abandoned a plan to put its bill to allow offshore processing of asylum seekers in Malaysia to a vote in October after it could not guarantee its passage through parliament.

The minister's proposal comes after Australian authorities intercepted a boat carrying more than 100 asylum seekers east of Christmas Island on Wednesday.

heraldsun.com.au 1 Dec 2011

What a joke at the expense of the Australian population.

Just another government policy to degrade the labour force value in Australia, to the financial advantage of the financiers.

An absolute moron ( rather a puppet for the order of the new world) for having these views in this economic climate.