breakingnewsbreakingnewsbreakingnews

Since early this afternoon, members in the House of Representatives have been locked in a fierce debate about amendments to the migration act, due to another distress signal from a boat of asylum seekers 107 nautical miles off the coast of Christmas Island. Earlier today Opposition Leader Tony Abbott tried to table his own bill which would see that asylum seekers are dealt with overseas, in Nauru, a country which HAS signed the convention that ensures rights for refugees and asylum seekers, however leave was not granted. Saying that, the government did back Independent Rob Oakshott’s bill, which would allow both the governments’ Malaysia solutions, and the Oppositions solution of Nauru to both be viable options under this legislation. At 2.00pm AEST, Prime Minister Julia Gillard stood up in the chamber and said that it was time to come to an agreement that “No-one [has] won, No-one [has] lost, we just have to get the job done”, this then led the way for an afternoon filled with MPs having the opportunity to voice their opinion about this issue. From listening to this debate the underlying fact is that although some of the technicalities differ from the government and the opposition both sides of politics want to come to some sort of agreement as soon as possible. Obviously the events that have happened today, are just the tip of the iceberg, so to speak, boast of refugees are continuously coming to seek asylum in Australia, but this debate is one that must happen, one that unless reaches an outcome tonight, or in the very near future will just keep on happening, and at smaller intervals than it currently is. So far the debate has been going on for more than 6 hours straight, will MPs come to a decision? Let us hope so, and as I write this, the sunset amendment clause was agreed to and the House of Representatives has passed Oakshotts bill 74/72, and so it is with hesitant eyes and ears that we watch the Senate tomorrow, where the legislation will have a harder time passing.