The Labor leader, Bill Shorten, says the government’s plan to ban asylum seekers who arrive by boat from ever being allowed into Australia looks like it was designed to appease the Coalition’s right wing.
Labor is expected to have an official response to the plan this week. Shorten said on Sunday he thought the Coalition’s proposal was “ludicrous on face value” but he had to let his party go through its normal decision-making processes.
Shadow cabinet will meet on Monday evening and the Labor caucus will meet on Tuesday morning. Labor is expected to decide the matter on Tuesday.
The Coalition said last week that it wanted to ban adult asylum seekers who had previously tried to enter Australia by boat since 19 July 2013, and who had been sent to detention centres on Nauru or Manus Island, from ever being allowed into the country.
It means adults who have previously tried to enter Australia by boat since 19 July 2013, but who have chosen to return home, will never be allowed to get a visa to Australia – as a tourist, for business, or as a spouse.
The controversial proposal was welcomed by the One Nation leader, Pauline Hanson, who tweeted: “Good to see that it looks like the government is now taking its cues from One Nation. Just like last time.”
But the UN high commissioner for refugees said he was “profoundly concerned” by the plan.
Greg Barns of the Australian Lawyers Alliance said if the bill were passed it was “likely to be scrutinised critically by the high court” and could be ruled unconstitutional.
On Sunday, Shorten said the Turnbull government had given Labor a copy of the legislation on Friday afternoon, five days after announcing it.
He said the proposal looked like it had been designed to keep the right wing of the Liberal party, and rightwing elements of the Senate, “from eating [Turnbull] alive.”
“On its face, the idea you will deter people smugglers by saying a genuine refugee who becomes a citizen of another country couldn’t visit Australia in 2056 – it’s just ridiculous,” Shorten told the ABC’s Insiders program.
He also said he had not seen any signs that the Turnbull government was working on a resettlement deal for asylum seekers in detention on Nauru and Manus Island to complement its proposed lifetime visa ban.
“We see no signs that the government has got any resettlement plans to conclude,” he said.
“I thought maybe this might be part of an architecture of a bigger deal, but they’ve rushed out and denied that.
“I also wondered, when this legislation, which I think most sensible people think is over the top, was floated, I thought maybe they have a deal with New Zealand ... but John Key, the prime minister of New Zealand, a conservative prime minister, has said the idea they would create New Zealand citizens with different standing to be able to travel around the world, he wasn’t up for.”
The immigration minister, Peter Dutton, was scathing of Shorten’s position on Sunday, saying the Coalition would not negotiate on the bill.
“Mr Shorten needs to support this legislation through the parliament,” he said.
“If he doesn’t it just demonstrates that he is being dictated to, once again, by the left of the Labor party.
“The talk of 40 years, and what happens in 40 years’ time, is a complete red herring ... the fact is that ministerial intervention exists within the Migration Act now, and we propose it within this new bill. This will allow the minister of the day to deal with any individual cases.”
According to a News Corp report on Sunday, the Turnbull government is in resettlement talks with Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines and central American countries, but no deal is imminent.
