Govt lacks asylum seeker timeline

Home Affairs Minister Brendan O'Connor can't say when a regional asylum seeker
processing centre might be built, if Labor win the coming election.
The federal government wants boat people arriving in Australian waters to be
processed in East Timor, but Mr O'Connor said there was no timeframe for actually
establishing the infrastructure.
"There's no timeline but there is a determination and focus of this government ...
on ensuring that we have a regional solution to this problem," he told Sky News on
Sunday.
Mr O'Connor couldn't even guarantee the centre would be built during Labor's next
term in office, should it retain power.
"There's a guarantee that we will work relentlessly to pursue this option," he said.
Government officials will travel to East Timor this week to continue discussing
plans for such a centre.
Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said he had already spoken to his counterpart
Zacarias da Costa about it.
"We have decided in the first instance our officials would deal with it and then he
and I will have a further conversation... to progress the matter," he told ABC TV.
"We will be sending officials to East Timor in the course of this week to start a
detailed discussion."
Mr Smith also clarified that East Timor was the only country Australia had
approached to host a regional processing centre.
"We haven't opened up, and are not proposing to open up a conversation with another
country," he said.
Meanwhile, opposition immigration spokesman Scott Morrison continued to spruik the
coalition's own refugee policy.
He denied asylum seekers would be charged for their stay in detention if the
Liberals and Nationals were elected.
Mr Morrison said the coalition's policy had "evolved" since the former Howard
government's Pacific Solution.
"We've made no announcement that we'd be restoring the detention debt policy," he
told Network Ten, referring to the controversial arrangement that saw detainees
accumulate massive debts that usually couldn't be repaid.
Mr Morrison also suggested the United Nations' convention on refugees be tweaked to
make it more contemporary.
"This was a document drawn up in a very different world," he said.
"We would always be party to a constructive conversation about how the convention
can be improved."
But prominent human rights lawyer Julian Burnside suggested a Bill of Rights be
drawn up to protect detained asylum seekers.
"A Bill of Rights would certainly provide some ability to prevent the excesses that
we saw in the details of what went on in detention centres during the Howard years,"
he told Network Ten.
As for when the issue will actually be put to punters, Australian Greens leader Bob
Brown tipped an August 21 or 28 poll.
Senator Brown said the election date would be at the top of Ms Gillard's agenda for
Tuesday's cabinet meeting.
"I think either this week or next week she's likely to go to the governor-general's
office asking for an election," he told the Nine Network.
However, Centrebet primary analyst Neil Evans said August 28 was now well ahead of
August 21 and the odds for September 4 had also shortened.
August 28 has firmed from $1.85 to $1.70, while September 4 is $4.25 from $6.