Exclusive: Senate numbers firming to compel minister to honour deal he did with Clive Palmer on five-year ‘safe haven enterprise visas’

This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old

The government would be forced to provide 31,000 asylum seekers with the possibility of a permanent visa or else abandon sweeping new asylum laws under a plan being negotiated by Labor, the Greens, the Palmer United party and other crossbench senators.

The asylum bill is one of a number of unresolved issues – or “barnacles” – the government wants resolved by Christmas.

But the numbers in the Senate are now firming to force Scott Morrison, the immigration minister, to make a big concession – to honour a deal he did with Clive Palmer in September in which the PUP believed it had won support for a new five-year “safe haven enterprise visa” (for refugees who agreed to work in regional areas) that would lead to a permanent visa.

The legislation implementing the deal between Morrison and Palmer, which passed the lower house last month, went far beyond what had been agreed with PUP and did not provide any details or any clear pathway for safe haven visa holders to achieve permanent residency.

Guardian Australia understands the Senate is very likely to insist on a clear “pathway to permanence”.

Morrison has insisted this won’t happen – leaving the likely fate of his legislation resting on his willingness to compromise.

“There’s no way I will lift the bar to give someone a permanent visa … We gave an absolute commitment on that and I’m not going to send a message … that permanent visas are on offer in Australia again for people who have arrived illegally by boat,” he said this week.

Morrison has insisted it is the fault of Labor and the Greens that the 31,000 asylum seekers who arrived before the new “Pacific solution” are languishing, without work rights, because of the political deadlock in the Senate over the terms under which they might stay.

He says the “bloody-minded’’ ideological refusal of the opposition parties to consider the Coalition’s policy to reintroduce temporary protection visas has left asylum seekers as “collateral damage”.

The Greens accuse him of “bullying” the crossbench and using the plight of asylum seekers as a form of “blackmail”.

As revealed by Guardian Australia, Palmer had immediate concerns about the bill and sent a “please explain” letter to Morrison when a parliamentary human rights committee including five members of the Coalition found the bill was incompatible with human rights.

Furious lobbying of the crossbench continues.

The Liberal Democrat senator David Leyonhjelm said he was considering his position. “I like the idea of the new safe haven visas, but the government is working on the assumption that it will be almost impossible for people on these visas to get permanent residency,” he said. “It still seems pretty mean.”

The independent senator Nick Xenophon said there were “aspects of this bill that cause me deep concern”. His fellow independent John Madigan is opposed to the government’s bill.

As well as reintroducing TPVs and the new safe haven visas, the legislation redefines who is eligible for refugee status and seeks to prevent future high court challenges against boat turnbacks, against claims by asylum-seeker children born in Australia or against claims of human rights breaches under the UN refugee convention.

It also “fast-tracks” refugee processing, removes rights of appeal and allows authorities to take detained vessels or persons anywhere in the world regardless of international or domestic law.



It is understood that Labor, the Greens and the crossbench will seek to remove many of these additional measures, leaving the bill focused on the visa issue.

Morrison has said he hopes to get the bill through before parliament rises next week.