Malcolm Fraser, former prime minister of Australia and Dr Barry Jones, a former minister for science in the Hawke government have launched a scathing attack on the The Migration and Maritime Powers Legislation Amendment (Resolving the Asylum Legacy Caseload) Bill saying that “it would effectively enshrine in law the mistreatment of asylum seekers and refugees who flee to our country to escape persecution, torture and death.”

The legislation is the perverse creation of a Government prepared to tear up the rule of law for its own political ends, say the authors.

"It bestows an unprecedented level of power on the immigration minister to make life and death decisions about individual refugee cases. It creates a regime where the chance of sending people back to a situation of grave danger, or even death, is a real possibility” say the authors in an article in The Age, today.

Some the major concerns raised over the Bill include the following:

• It denies permanent protection to those found to be refugees, simply because of their mode of arrival to this country. 
• Babies born on Australian soil to parents who arrived by boat will be denied protection, rendered stateless and detained offshore until being "resettled" in squalor and risk of attack on Nauru.
• Under the Bill if it's considered that a refugee can simply "modify their behaviour" to avoid persecution or harm at home, then they'll be sent back.
• Refugees cases may be knocked back because they have false or no travel documents.
• People receiving a negative decision through the fast-track process will be at the mercy of the minister to decide if their case is deserving of review.
• In its determination to send people back at all costs, the government also wants to remove consideration of whether someone is at risk of torture when seeking to return them home.
• As well as circumventing Australian law, the bill also seeks to put the government above international maritime law, so it can send people on boats back to the country they're fleeing from, without any court oversight.
• The reintroduction of temporary protection visas (TPVs) means that refugees have to prove and re-prove they are refugees.

The authors state that the Bill feeds fear to the electorate, which the opposition feels obliged to support, in a context of a beat-up of Olympian proportions. The numbers of refugees heading for Australia are trivial compared to those travelling to many European countries. They don't overreact. We do.

“There are moments in history which are turning points. Now is such a time. Australia can stand up and protect the rule of law or become an international pariah, living isolated at the end of the world, forever in fear of others.”

Malcolm Fraser, is a former prime minister of Australia 1975-1983. Dr Barry Jones, is a former minister for science in the Hawke government 1983-1990.

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/comment/perverse-migration-bill-shreds-the-rule-of-law-20141106-11h7m7.html