Reuters: Revolt forces Australia PM to ditch new asylum laws

[Eugene]

Revolt forces Australia PM to ditch new asylum laws

Reuters
Monday, August 14, 2006; 1:21 AM

CANBERRA (Reuters) - Australia abandoned on Monday plans for tougher new asylum laws,
designed to ease Indonesian concerns, after a revolt by government lawmakers ensured
Prime Minister John Howard could not pass the legislation.

The revolt handed Howard the biggest parliamentary defeat in his conservative government's
10 years in office, and forced him to withdraw the changes ahead of a vote.

-snip-

The new laws, drawn up to ease Indonesian concerns after Australia granted asylum to 43
Papuans, would have sent all asylum seekers who arrived by boat on mainland Australia
to detention camps on the remote Pacific island nation of Nauru.

-snip-

Dissenting government politicians were angry that the proposed immigration laws would
mean children would have been detained in Nauru, despite a Howard promise a year ago
that children would no longer be kept in immigration detention.

-snip-

Full article: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/14/AR2006081400042.html

[babylonsister]

1. Aussie pols show a spine! Good on them! nt

[AussieDave]

2. This is John Howard's "cut-and-run" strategy

He's such a moral coward, as are most of his party.