The Albanese Labor Government is trying to work hand in hand with Peter Dutton's Coalition to push through the most extreme anti-migrant and anti-refugee policies Australia has seen in a generation.
The government is seeking to combine three bills that will fundamentally undermine multiculturalism in Australia.
The first law allows the Government to bribe other countries to take up to 80,000 people currently in Australia. Once they arrive in these third countries, the law gives them no protection. Under this law, a refugee who went to offshore detention but is now in Australia can be sent literally anywhere in the world without regard for their safety.
The second bill includes a Trump-style travel ban that would allow the Government to prevent anyone from certain countries from coming to Australia. This targets countries like Iran and Sudan, placing permanent barriers between diaspora communities and their extended families and communities.
This Bill will mean a mother who fled a country like Iran - and went through an unfair refugee system in Australia - could be ordered to return to Iran with her children or face mandatory jail time if she refuses.
The final law is a phone ban law that prohibits people having access to essential items like mobile phones across Australia's immigration detention centres. Labor voted against a version of this bill in 2020 and in 2017 when Minister Dutton proposed it because of the human rights implications.
Senator David Shoebridge, the Greens spokesperson on Immigration, said: "The Albanese Government is working hand in hand with Peter Dutton to push through the most extreme migration legislation since the White Australia policy.
"Labor is giving Peter Dutton an early Christmas present with all these appalling bills wrapped up in a bow.
"The Coalition know they could never get away with passing these laws in their name, so they are teaming up with Labor to ram them through.
"There are no doubt people in the Coalition shaking their heads in disbelief and saying you only get one Tony Burke in your lifetime.
"The Government is trying to be meaner to migrants and multicultural communities than the Coalition in the run-up to an election, in a futile effort to outflank Dutton on the right.
"The Albanese Government watched how Donald Trump punched down on migrants in the US election campaign and instead of rejecting those politics, they are embracing them.
"The Greens are calling on Albanese and Labor to work with us to protect multicultural Australia and to stop the fear and division around migrants and refugees.
"While Labor is choosing to side with the Coalition and punish people based on where they were born, the Greens know Australians want better and want politicians to back in and celebrate multicultural Australia."
