Australia's decision to accept New Zealand's offer to resettle refugees currently in offshore detention centres was not motivated by "humanitarian goodness" but politics ahead of the upcoming election across the ditch, a refugee advocate says.
Nine years after New Zealand first made the offer, it was announced on Thursday that the Australian government would accept it. It's a significant U-turn from a country whose leader, Scott Morrison, has repeatedly said Australia had no intention to take up the offer.
It's unclear exactly why Australia, which will hold an election this year, has now made the decision to move ahead with New Zealand. But Home Affairs Minister Karen Andrews is reported as saying the delay was a result of Australia prioritising a resettlement agreement with the United States, which is now drawing to an end.
It's also being claimed that accepting the offer was part of a secret deal made in December 2019 between independent Australian senator Jacqui Lambie and Morrison. Lambie has said the Australian Prime Minister told her at the time that she would be jailed if she spoke about it.
Either way, refugee advocate Filipa Payne believes it has been driven by politics.
"I don't believe it's got any humanitarian goodness behind it," she told AM on Friday. "I believe it's 100 percent political from the Australian Government. Let's ask why has it taken nine years for them to accept this offer? For those nine years, people have been treated really, really badly by the Australian Government."
The deal announced on Thursday will see New Zealand resettle up to 150 refugees per year for three years from Australia's current refugee cohort, including those in the infamous Naura detention centre.
They will come under New Zealand's existing refugee quota and must meet several criteria, such as not being engaged in any other resettlement arrangements. The refugees will undergo the same United Nations process as other refugees and comprehensive screening.
"New Zealand has a long and proud history of refugee resettlement and this arrangement is another example of how we are fulfilling our humanitarian international commitment," Immigration Minister Kris Faafoi said on Thursday. "We are pleased to be able to provide resettlement outcomes for refugees who would otherwise have continued to face uncertain futures."
The offer was first made in 2013 by Prime Minister John Key to Australian leader Julia Gillard as New Zealand wanted to step up its response to asylum seekers in the region.
Over the last nine years, New Zealand has continued to make the offer, but the Australian government has refused to implement it out of fear it would open a backdoor to Australia for the refugees. As the refugees will be placed on a path to citizenship, they could take advantage of New Zealand's arrangements with Australia and eventually move there.
The Australia Home Affairs Department on Thursday reportedly said any resettled refugees would only be allowed to enter Australia on a short-term basis.
Andrews also made it clear that this deal would only apply to those currently in Australia's refugee programme and not to any future refugees.
"This arrangement does not apply to anyone who attempts an illegal maritime journey to Australia in the future," Andrews said on Thursday. "Australia remains firm – illegal maritime arrivals will not settle [in Australia] permanently. Anyone who attempts to breach our borders will be turned back or sent to Nauru."
Payne said the deal is just a first step and believes the 150 per year should be on top of the 1500 annual quota.
"There are going to be lots more than have been affected but it's a start," she said. "I'm very proud of the fact that New Zealand has made this offer to people that have been placed in really abhorrent conditions, that have been treated inhumanely."
According to the Refugee Council of Australia, as of December 31, 2021, there were 82 refugees on Nauru, just one of the country's offshore detention centres. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees believes there are 112 refugees and asylum seekers currently on Nauru and 1100 others in Australia.
Those who are resettled in New Zealand will need intense counselling and a lot of support, Payne said. The detention centres are "dire" with a lack of medical care, she said.
"We are going to need to show them how to reintegrate into society again. Some of these people have been trapped in detention centres for up to nine years. They've been completely taken away from society.
"Why has Australia taken nine years and treated people this way. The people that are in the detention centres, that are refugees, are from places like Ukraine. They have come from conditions where they wanted to reach safety for themselves and their family, for their children, and they've been persecuted for that."
The Morrison government's acceptance of the deal comes ahead of an election in May.
According to Lambie, she made a deal with Morrison in 2019 for the refugees to be moved out of the detention centres in exchange for help reversing legislation that allowed doctors to decide when refugees could be medevaced to the Australian mainland. That passed without the Government's support.
She has told news.com.au that she wasn't allowed to speak about that deal as otherwise it would be off. She claims Morrison told her she would end up in jail if she exposed it.
"I felt really annoyed by that. I thought that (was) quite threatening. I was not happy about it. That’s why I kept saying if I say anything I come out in handcuffs. I am rapt these people are free. It’s such a relief."
The Sydney Morning Herald reports a spokesperson for Morrison as neither confirming nor denying any deals were made with senators. But the spokesperson also reportedly said Lambie was briefed on the national security implications of the deal and legislation.
The Australian opposition said the deal was a "humiliating backflip" for the government intended to neutralise political issues for its city-based MPs who may face challenges at the May election.
