Migration Act report to be handed down today
As we speak, Prime Minister John Howard is entertaining a group of Inonesian MPs in Canberra. Their visit comes as a Senate committee is due to hand down its findings on the Federal Governments proposed migration changes. The changes will ensure all asylum seekers arriving by boat in Australia will be taken for processing offshore. They come after 42 West Papuans were granted asylum in March, a move which created a major rift between Australia and the Indonesian Government. Four Coalition senators are rumoured to oppose the Government legislation, three more than is necessary to scuttle the bill if Labour and the minor parties vote against the proposed changes. But Mr Howard remains unflustered by the dissent, saying the legislation will go ahead anyway. The Wire spoke to Kate Gauthier from lobby group A Just Australia about her concerns over the proposed changes to the migration law.