Namah: Abort asylum deal

 By SHIRLYN BELDEN 

OPPOSITION Leader Belden Namah has appealed to new Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott to rescind the Refugee Resettlement Agreement initiated by the former Labor government. 

Namah said: “I would like to call on the new prime minister of Australia Tony Abbott to seriously review the asylum seekers agreement signed by then Australain prime minister Kevin Rudd and Papua New Guinea Prime Minister Peter O’Neill to process and resettle asylum seekers on PNG soil. I want the new government to rescind the agreement because the opposition continues to believe that the agreement is in breach of the Section 42 of the Constitution and in breach of the UN Convention on Human Rights. And we also believe that it is in breach of the domestic laws of Australia. 

“That is why I am appealing to the Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott to cancel the agreement. You have made your commitment to not allow asylum seekers to Australia; you will completely stop it and we call on you to repeal the agreement because it is in breach of our Constitution.”  

Namah also accused the former Labor government of displaying a lack of respect for PNG laws. 

He said the opposition believed that the agreement was signed “unilaterally, without cabinet approval and proper debate on floor of parliament”. 

Namah reiterated that PNG faced its own problems and the government should not allow outside problems such as the asylum issue to derail its development agenda.

He added that the asylum deal was an additional problem that would impact on law and order problems and other issues in the country. 

The opposition leader confirmed that he had been overseas on a fact-finding mission.

He also accused the Government of “repeating the norms of the past”.