New laws would ban asylum seekers, detainees arriving by boat from ever entering Australia

AAP on October 30, 2016, 2:10 pm  Share  Tweet  Email  The federal government wants asylum seekers who tried to come to Australia by boat to be banned for life from entering the country, even as a tourist or on legitimate business. Play Video Pause  Mute Current Time 0:23 / Duration Time 6:02 Loaded: 0% Progress: 0% Progress: 0% Fullscreen VIDEO Woman hospitalised after hit and run, Trump closing in on Clinton "That absolutely unflinching, unequivocal message has to be loud and clear," Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull told reporters in Sydney on Sunday. "The door to Australia is closed to those who seek to come here by boat with a people smuggler. It is closed." The government will ask parliament to ban everyone who was sent to Nauru or Papua New Guinea's Manus Island for offshore immigration processing after July 19, 2013 - the date Labor prime minister Kevin Rudd declared: "As of today, asylum seekers who come here by boat without a visa will never be settled in Australia." Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull (right) and Immigration and Border Protection Minister Peter Dutton, answer a question during a press conference in Sydney. Photo: AAP The ban would apply whether or not they were found to be refugees and extends to all types of visas, including tourist and business categories. Asylum seekers aged under 18 at the time they were sent to Nauru or Manus Island would be exempt. The minister would also have power to lift the bar if they believe it's in the public interest for someone to be allowed in to Australia. Immigration Minister Peter Dutton described the plan as one of the government's strongest moves, building on the success of its border protection policies over the past three years. It sent a clear message that Australia was not an option. •'BIGWin For Paedophiles': Melbourne mum launches moral campaign against Target and Big W • Jennifer Hawkins stands by Donald Trump despite humiliating video "There are still people, advocates in Australia and elsewhere, who are messaging to people on Nauru and Manus, that at some stage you'll come to Australia," Mr Dutton said. "Those people are living in false hope and it cannot continue." The legislation would reflect the coalition's long-standing policy and what it understood to be Labor's position, Mr Turnbull said. The federal government wants to pass laws to make sure no asylum seekers who tried to come to Australia by boat, even those found to be refugees, can ever enter the country. Photo: AAP He expects the opposition will give "unequivocal support" to the move. Deputy Opposition Leader Tanya Plibersek said it was too soon to determine if Labor would support the bill. Do This Everyday And You'll Never Need A New PC ScanGuard Sponsored "It's a distraction from Peter Dutton's hopeless mismanagement of his portfolio," she told reporters on the Gold Coast. "It is extraordinary that, three years on, the government has not found third countries to resettle those people who are in limbo on Manus Island and Nauru." Asylum seekers staring at media from behind a fence at the Manus Island detention centre, Papua New Guinea, in 2012. Photo: AAP Labor frontbencher Brendan O'Conner was also reluctant to back the plan without seeing legislation and described asylum seeker policy as "a very vexed area". Lawyer and refugee advocate David Manne said the wholesale barring of asylum seekers seemed excessive. "Why are these measures seen as necessary when the government for some time has said they have got things under control?" he told ABC TV. "We are told that these extremely harsh measures implemented have been successful. All of a sudden, why is this seen as fundamental to the policy?"