'They're not people fleeing persecution. They're coming from majority religious or ethnic groups in the countries their fleeing, they're coming here as economic migrants.'
'The evidence has shifted under our eyes. A few years ago you could say that most of the people had some case to make about fleeing persecution. Now that's changed.'
Senator Bob Carr's comments show a lack of understanding of the separation of powers, the rule of law and the refugee assessment process in Australia.
In the early 1990s, similar comments were made by Bob Hawke about the Cambodians who were seeking asylum. Hawke was rightly criticised for prejudging the cases. At the time Australia was promoting settlement of the long running conflict in Cambodia, and the last thing the Hawke Government needed was its plan ruined by Cambodians fleeing the very country that they were encouraging people to return to. The Cambodians became part of the political game and were eventually resettled in Australia provided they return to Cambodia for 12 months.
This farcical 1990s solution has now been trumped by the 2012 'no advantage test' which places asylum seekers in some mythical queue.
It is highly prejudicial for members of cabinet to be prejudging applications for refugee status, especially before an application is even made. Carr believes the process can be simplified and that DFAT will be able to supply the key country information. This is simply unrealistic. His other criticism was that the court and tribunals had made the wrong decisions: 'we've reached the view that as a result of court and tribunal decisions, it's coming up wrong. We need a tougher, more hard-edged assessment.'
It is remarkable that, when confronted with the fact that the numbers of people meeting the refugee criteria are high, Carr's solution is to change the rules.
His views have been challenged by those informed of the legal issues, such as the Human Right Commissioner, several prominent academics and a former principal member of the RRT. All challenge Carr's assumptions.
Motivation for fleeing may be mixed, and political, economic and religious factors can easily interact. Refugee status determination is thus a complex process. But the criteria to meet the requirements for a protection visa are strict. Eligibility to apply for a protection visa alone involves a number of sections of the Migration Act.
Simply being from a majority ethnic or religious group does not preclude someone from being a refugee. Refugee status can be about protecting a person