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AUSTRALIA-POLITICS-REFUGEE,LEAD
Embattled Aussie PM suffers historic defeat over refugees
CANBERRA, Feb 12, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – Australia’s conservative minority
government suffered a damaging political defeat Tuesday, becoming the first
administration in nearly a century to lose a vote on major legislation and
sparking calls for a snap election.
Despite a bruising and highly personal lobbying effort, Prime Minister
Scott Morrison was defeated by MPs who insisted refugees held in offshore
facilities have the right to be transferred to Australia for medical
treatment.
It is the first time in decades that an Australian government has lost a
vote on a substantive piece of legislation, sparking applause and cheers from
observers in the parliamentary viewing gallery in Canberra.
Morrison lost his parliamentary majority last year and has been relying on
crossbenchers to keep control of the lower House of Representatives.
But the 75-74 vote — which came on the first sitting day of parliament
this year — in favour of the refugee bill opposed by the government is a
blow to the already embattled prime minister and raised questions about
whether he can remain in office.
When the sitting government last lost a vote on substantive legislation in
1929, then prime minister Stanley Bruce immediately called an election, and
lost it.
The government of prime minister Arthur Fadden lost a symbolic budget vote
in 1941 and immediately resigned.
– No snap election –
Morrison ruled out calling a snap election, saying the vote was not a no-
confidence motion in his government and he was still planning for a national
poll in May.
“These are not matters that go to issues of confidence and I don’t consider
them in those terms,” Morrison told reporters in Canberra.
The bill passed with the support of the main opposition Labor Party and
crossbenchers from the left-leaning Greens and independent MPs.
Many of the independent MPs have indicated they want the government to
serve its full term, which ends in May. The bill, which is an amendment to
government legislation, was first passed by the upper house in December, and
will return to the Senate for a vote on Wednesday after several changes were
made to it.
It is expected to pass as the coalition does not have the numbers in the
upper house to block it.
The push to speed up medical evacuations was first made by independent MP
Kerryn Phelps last year after she won the Liberal Party stronghold of
Wentworth when former PM Malcolm Turnbull was ousted in a party coup.
Since then, the government had lurched from crisis to crisis, and a
disastrous showing in elections in Victoria state intensified expectations it
is heading for defeat in May.
The vote in favour of the bill came amid growing concern about the
wellbeing of asylum-seekers sent to Nauru and Papua New Guinea, with reports
of abuse, suicide and lengthy detention periods.
Under a harsh policy meant to deter asylum-seekers from reaching Australia
by boat, Canberra sends arrivals to the camps for processing and barred them
from resettling in Australia.
Rights groups praised the vote, with the Human Rights Law Centre calling it
a “watershed moment in refugee politics and Australian history”.
BSS/AFP/RY16:58 hrs