John Howard faces revolt over new asylum laws

John Howard

CANBERRA - Australian Prime Minister John Howard faced a serious challenge to his authority yesterday with an open revolt within his government over tougher illegal immigration laws.

The planned laws, designed to ease Indonesian concerns after Australia granted asylum to 43 Papuans, will mean all asylum seekers who arrive by boat will be sent to the remote Pacific Island nation of Nauru while their claims are assessed.

But some government members are concerned the laws mean children who arrive by boat will also be detained, despite Howard's promise earlier in the year to guarantee children would no longer be held in camps.

Mandatory detention for illegal arrivals has been at the centre of Howard's past two election wins.

Yesterday he pleaded with dissenting members of his Liberal-National conservative coalition government to support the laws when they are presented to parliament this week.

"If you have reservations, please do not vote with the (opposition) Labour Party," a party spokesman quoted Howard as telling lawmakers on Tuesday.

But up to 10 members of the government have expressed concerns, and two members openly defied Howard, telling the party meeting they will vote against the legislation.

The laws, to be introduced today, will be defeated in the upper house, or Senate, if two ruling coalition lawmakers vote against the legislation.

The stand-off is the most serious challenge to Howard's authority in his 10 years in power, said John Warhurst, professor of politics at the Australian National University.

"It's one of the big issues of the Howard period, which will be remembered by historians," Warhurst told Reuters.

The revolt comes after the government suffered a drop in support.

A Newspoll in The Australian newspaper yesterday found the opposition Labour Party had a two-point lead over the government, 51 per cent to 49 per cent, and had either led or been level with the government for five of the past six months.

The revolt also comes as Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said his department would investigate a new report that said nine rejected asylum seekers had been killed in 2002 and 2003 after Australia sent them back to Afghanistan.

The report by the Catholic Edmund Rice Centre was based on interviews in Kabul with rejected asylum seekers who had been detained by Australia in camps on Nauru and Manus Island in Papua New Guinea.

- REUTERS