Barnaby Joyce says the Biloela girls would me treated differently if their names were “Jane and Sally” as internal pressure mounts on the federal government to keep the family in Australia.
A resolution for the Tamil family was expected within days, nearly three years since they were detained on Christmas Island, after Prime Minister Scott Morrison signalled the government’s position was thawing.
The federal government has spent $6.7m detaining the family since August 2019 when an 11th-hour court injunction prevented their deportation to Sri Lanka.
But Mr Joyce said the two girls “didn’t buy their tickets” and had a right to stay in Australia “despite what the allegations might be about their parents or their father”.
“Tharnicaa and Kopika were born in Australia. Maybe if their names were Jane and Sally we’d think twice about sending them back to another country which they’re not from,” the Nationals MP told Sunrise on Monday.
RELATED: Taxpayers spent $6.7m detaining Biloela family between August 2019 and January 2021
“Why not send them to Southern Sudan, why not send them to Rwanda to Belarus? They’re also countries they were never born in.”
Parents Nades and Priya were employed in Biloela before their detention, and Mr Joyce said regional Australia was in need of migrants to fill unemployment gaps.
Mr Joyce was one of several Coalition MPs calling for the family to remain in Australia but conceded the intervention would “leave me offside with other people in my party”.
The government had flagged the prospect of the family being sent to the US or New Zealand, but their status as non-refugees quickly put an end to the idea.
Mr Morrison confirmed alternative options, which include the family remaining Australia, were being discussed with the Home Affairs Department.
“Those issues are always carefully considered in all of these sensitive cases,” he said.
But he flatly rejected suggestions the family could be offered a pathway to permanent settlement, which was “not the government’s policy”.
The comments apparently indicated one option for the family was remaining via a skilled migrant visa.
The Coalition has argued granting permanent residency for a family deemed not to be refugees would reignite the people smuggling trade.
Labor backbencher Joel Fitzgibbon described the argument as “never unsustainable” and predicted the matter would be “fixed” before the parliament resumed on Tuesday.
“That’s just my instinct. This idea that the government can continue to prosecute an argument that accommodating this family somehow is going to open the floodgates on boats again is just ridiculous and unsustainable,” he told Sunrise.
“It’s becoming a big political issue for the government, and I think they will fix it before we gather for question time tomorrow.”
It comes after former Liberal MP Julia Banks claimed she was “silenced” for speaking out on refugee rights within the Coalition.
“It’s like these MPs (including a paediatrician ) have been watching the cruelty, harm & torture and suddenly said: ok enough now ... stop it , we’ve got an election to win. Disgusting,” she tweeted.
The issue was brought to a head when the family’s three-year old daughter Tharnicaa was rushed to hospital fighting a blood infection, more than a week after supporters said her condition began to deteriorate.
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2021-06-13 23:51:48Z
CBMitgFodHRwczovL3d3dy5uZXdzLmNvbS5hdS9uYXRpb25hbC9wb2xpdGljcy9iYXJuYWJ5LWpveWNlLXNheXMtYmlsb2VsYS1naXJscy13b3VsZC1iZS10cmVhdGVkLWRpZmZlcmVudGx5LWlmLXRoZXktd2VyZS1jYWxsZWQtamFuZS1hbmQtc2FsbHkvbmV3cy1zdG9yeS83YjVkMmVlZThhMzQxM2I4YWI2NTg3YzdlZDYzMTY1ONIBtgFodHRwczovL2FtcC5uZXdzLmNvbS5hdS9uYXRpb25hbC9wb2xpdGljcy9iYXJuYWJ5LWpveWNlLXNheXMtYmlsb2VsYS1naXJscy13b3VsZC1iZS10cmVhdGVkLWRpZmZlcmVudGx5LWlmLXRoZXktd2VyZS1jYWxsZWQtamFuZS1hbmQtc2FsbHkvbmV3cy1zdG9yeS83YjVkMmVlZThhMzQxM2I4YWI2NTg3YzdlZDYzMTY1OA
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