“It’s going to roll over for one purpose:to pander to political self-interest and to try and get more votes at the next election and to try and win government.”
The vote to pass the Migration Amendment (Strengthening the Character Test) bill in the lower house came at about 7:30pm with Mr Wilkie and Greens leader Adam Bandt voting against its passage.
Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese voting with the government to support changes to deportation laws.Credit:Alex Ellinghausen
Mr Albanese and Labor climate spokesman Chris Bowen were among the few Labor MPs who turned up for the vote alongside Mr Morrison and most government MPs to pass the bill.
The government has talked of trying to get the bill through the Senate before the election but that is in doubt given Parliament rises on Thursday and does not sit again until the week of the March 29 budget,with the election likely to be called soon afterwards.
Senator Keneally argued the government had amended its bill before Christmas to acknowledge some of the concerns made by Labor over many years and that this cleared the way for Labor to allow the bill to go through the House.
“We’re hopeful that they will continue to work with us on some of the other unintended consequences that we have concerns about,” Senator Keneally told Sky News on Wednesday morning.
Crossbench MPs Andrew Wilkie and Adam Bandt voting against the bill.Credit:Alex Ellinghausen
But Home Affairs Minister Karen Andrews insisted the government would not amend the bill and would demand Labor pass the package on the government’s terms.
The passage of the bill through the lower house sets up a likely Senate inquiry or protracted vote in the upper house that could delay a final outcome until after the election,depending on the time available for debate when Parliament meets for the March 29 budget.
Immigration Minister Alex Hawke said it was 1200 days since the government first asked Labor and the Greens to help pass the law to strengthen the character test in the law.
“This will make sure that when people do come here and do the wrong thing,the government can act,” he said. “That’s what the Australian public wants.”
The end to the stand-off came one day after the government used question time on Tuesday to accuse Mr Albanese of being “weak” on crime by not being willing to toughen the law to deport people who had been convicted of serious crimes.
The federal government tried to pass the laws in 2019 and again in October last year,but Labor opposed the changes on the grounds they created tension with New Zealand,involved a retrospective sanction and covered low-level offences.
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern hasrepeatedly criticised the practise of deporting people from Australia to New Zealand after their criminal convictions,saying the issue was “corrosive” to the relationship between the two nations.
Asked on Sky News if she had been wedged on the issue because the government would not agree to any Labor amendments,Senator Keneally said the government had already flagged its own amendments to address concerns raised last year.
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“We understand that the bill will need to be amended by the government based on what[Immigration Minister] Alex Hawke said yesterday,” Senator Keneally said.
“If he is suddenly concerned about section 116 and 117,an issue he has never raised with me previously… and indeed hasn’t been ventilated in three Senate inquiries,and if this is an issue the government wants to fix,they need to put forward their amendments and come and talk to us.”
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