PM extends helping hand to boat people

By GREG ANSLEY in Sydney

New Zealand may fill much of its next refugee quota with "queue-jumping" boat people in Indonesia to help relieve the pressure on Australia from a flood of asylum seekers.

Prime Minister Helen Clark met her Australian counterpart, John Howard, in Sydney yesterday and said afterwards that the proposal was being considered.

It would mean that boat people, who might not be genuine refugees, would take places in the quota ahead of some whose refugee status has been confirmed.

Helen Clark said an attempt to clear the build-up of boat people waiting to make a dash to Australia could be more humane than filling most of the 750 places from other troubled parts of the world.

Although the spate of small boats heading for Australia has been stemmed, for the moment, by a naval blockade and international coverage of mandatory detention, thousands of asylum seekers remain in outback detention camps and in Nauru and Papua New Guinea. Thousands more are stranded in Indonesia.

New Zealand will take part in a summit in Bali this month aimed at stemming the flow of refugees through Southeast Asia and at defusing tension between Canberra and Jakarta.

Wellington's approach will be important to Mr Howard, whose talks with Helen Clark came amid a growing political storm over his Government's manipulation of information in the Tampa crisis during last year's election campaign.

Helen Clark refused to comment on the row engulfing Mr Howard, whose "Pacific solution" - sending boat people to Pacific islands - has come under increasing fire.

The two Prime Ministers brushed aside questions about the Clark Government's annoyance at sniping by Australian ministers, emphasising the closeness of the relationship and the need for cooperation.

New Zealand's transtasman stocks were raised by its decision to accept Tampa refugees, and it is clear Canberra would welcome further support.

Helen Clark would not say how much of New Zealand's quota for the new refugee year, starting in July, would be filled from boat people in Indonesia.

"We have 750 places and we have absolute discretion over how we deploy that quota."