Fed: Govt withdraws migration bill=3

AAP General News (Australia)
08-14-2006
Fed: Govt withdraws migration bill=3

Liberal senator Judith Troeth has led coalition dissent against the legislation, under
which all boatpeople would have been processed in offshore detention centres even if they
reached the Australian mainland.

Critics of the legislation said it was designed to appease Indonesia, which protested
strongly when Australia granted asylum to a group of Papuan refugees who landed on Cape
York earlier this year.

Family First senator Steve Fielding had said he would vote against the bill, while
maverick Nationals senator Barnaby Joyce had threatened to follow suit.

Last week, Liberal MPs Petro Georgiou, Russell Broadbent and Judi Moylan crossed the
floor of the House of Representatives to vote against the legislation, while fellow moderate
Bruce Baird and Nationals MP John Forrest abstained from voting.

AAP dcr/sb/cdh/de

KEYWORD: MIGRATION WITHDRAW 3 CANBERRA

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