Gillard lays down tougher Australian immigration practice
July 07 2010 by Niall J Rice
The Australian prime-minister
The newly appointed prime-minister of Australia, Julia Gillard, is planning to woo the Australian public with her strong stance on immigration over the coming weeks.
Ms Gillard has announced plans that the government in Australia is to set-up a regional processing centre on East-Timor. This it is hoped will deter people smugglers from their aims of landing boats on Australian shores – as Australian immigration will simply take them to the south-east Asian country.
The comparisons with the old ‘pacific solution’ have already begun, however, the opposition party feels that Gillard has not gone far enough and pledged to fully re-instate John Howard’s directive of diverting boats to Pacific states such as Papua New Guinea.
At the moment asylum seekers landing in Australia are sent to Christmas Island for processing, 200km from Australia’s mainland.
Immigration in Australia is an issue that has been under the spotlight for the last ten years, with the recent replacing of prime-minister Kevin Rudd attributable to voters lack of faith in his Australia immigration policies.
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