Liberals split over detention debts

At the end of a bad week the last thing the coalition wanted was four of its MPs
standing shoulder to shoulder with the federal government to help abolish
immigration detention debts.
To avoid that scenario - and the embarrassing pictures the media were waiting to
snap - the opposition leadership let Labor's draft laws pass the lower house on
Thursday afternoon without calling for a formal vote.
Liberal backbenchers Petro Georgiou, Judi Moylan, Danna Vale and Russell Broadbent
supported the government's legislation abolishing the practice of billing asylum
seekers for their mandatory detention.
But they were not forced to cross the floor to make their point.
Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull did not need another blow to land on top of the
bruises he is already suffering after the spectacular backfire of his OzCar attack
on the prime minister and treasurer.
Before the bill abolishing detention debts passed the lower house, Mr Broadbent said
breaking ranks with his party was "very hard".
"We do this with great regret and great grief," he said.
But it was the right course of action because charging innocent people for the cost
of their incarceration was "wrong-headed, merciless, unfair, unjust and
ineffectual".
Mr Broadbent said he was also righting a wrong he personally committed 17 years ago,
when he supported the Keating government's mandatory detention and billing policies.
"God forgive me that I was part of that parliament that did that," he said, adding
that decision had caused so much distress to so many families.
"The wrong will be righted today."
Earlier, opposition immigration spokeswoman Sharman Stone said abolishing detention
debts would send a message to people smugglers that Australia's back door was "wide
open".
"We don't think it is a clever thing to put out that message into the region," Dr
Stone told ABC television.
But she supported the right of the renegade MPs to hold a different view: "We are a
party of freedom, expression and choice".
The government says the changes will not cost the taxpayers a cent because debts are
rarely collected in practice.
And as a deterrent, it is retaining detention debts for people smugglers and illegal
fishermen.
The draft laws are expected to sail through the Senate with the support of
crossbench senators when parliament resumes after the six-week winter break.
On Thursday, the government also introduced legislation that will further alter the
way Australia deals with asylum seekers.
Immigration Minister Chris Evans said those laws would enshrine a Labor promise made
earlier this year.
He said that under the legislation, mandatory detention will remain but "the bill
embeds in law the principle that people are detained based on the risk they pose and
held in an immigration detention centre for the shortest practicable time".