The House of Reps has passed the Life Time Ban on Visas Bill. This bill will seek to bar anyone who attempted to seek asylum in Australia by boat after July 2013 from ever being granted a visa to even visit Australia. The government is doing this to score points with One Nation in exchange for their support on future legislation.

The measure is cruel, unnecessary, and could have all manner of unintended consequences. Imagine a child brought by a parent seeking to join their other parent whom has been granted refugee status and is already in Australia – the child could never even visit their parent here for the rest of their life.

The UN has already said that the proposed ban appears to breach Article 31 of the Refugee Convention (which prohibits refugees being penalised for seeking protection in an irregular manner.) Are we the sort of country that does things like this?

This measure cannot pass without the votes of the cross bench. Please email or call them, particularly if you are resident in their state and they are your representative.

* senator.hinch@aph.gov.au … (03) 9820 2222
* senator.lambie@aph.gov.au … (03) 6431 2233
* senator.xenophon@aph.gov.au … (08) 8232 1144
* senator.kakoschke-moore@aph.gov.au … (08) 8232 0220
* senator.leyonhjelm@aph.gov.au … (02) 9719 1078
* senator.griff@aph.gov.au … (08) 8212 1409