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Former prime minister Malcolm Fraser says recommendations in the Houston report on the processing of asylum seekers are ''racist'' and in some ways worse than the Pacific Solution under John Howard.

Speaking to the National Times over lunch at the Asylum Seeker's Resource Centre in West Melbourne, Mr Fraser said that with it being proved how mandatory detention traumatises refugees under the Pacific Solution, it was even more inhumane to reintroduce it.

Mr Fraser said amendments to legislation allowing offshore processing of asylum seekers that will be put to Parliament this week would needlessly punish some of the most vulnerable people in the world.


Former Australian prime minister Malcolm Fraser with Arshad Isbal and his wife, Wajihi Arshad, at the resource centre in West Melbourne. Photo: Joe Armao JAA
''I think the impact will be tougher than Howard's Pacific Solution because there is no time limit on how long people will be in these detention centres, it's indefinite,'' he said.

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He said children held in detention would be worse off under the recommendations.

''The minister will no longer be guardian of children, so the convention on the rights of the child, which we've agreed to, suddenly means nothing.''

Mr Fraser said the amendments would not stop the boats and that more people would be at risk of drowning.

''The Liberals and others say that Howard stopped the boats, but if you look overall at what happened, the Taliban fell. The numbers of refugees going to Europe fell just as dramatically at the same time and no country in Europe had yet introduced the punitive measures that Australia introduced.''

Mr Fraser said the sensible alternative was to have large processing centres, in Malaysia or Indonesia, with the commitment that those recognised as genuine refugees would come to Australia.

More than 246,000 refugees, mostly from IndoChina, came to Australia under the Fraser government. The current humanitarian intake is 13,750 per year.

Mr Fraser said that very few boats landed in Australia during his time because there was an organised alternative.

Just 30 boats arrived in the last four years of his prime ministership.

Mr Fraser said the Houston panel's recommendations were racist because if white farmers from Zimbabwe had fled persecution to Australia via boat, they would be accepted.

He said he hoped the amendments would be challenged in the High Court.

''I would be delighted to think it might be open to a High Court challenge but they will obviously be trying to cover their tracks.''

He accused the Labor and Liberal parties of ''behaving disgracefully and damaging Australia's reputation, not just in our own part of the world, but right around the world''.

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Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/political-news/pms-pacific-solution-is-racist-fraser-20120814-2466c.html#ixzz23V2qNP3b[b][/b]

Mr Fraser said the Houston panel's recommendations were racist because if white farmers from Zimbabwe had fled persecution to Australia via boat, they would be accepted.

... wrote on Aug 14^th, 2012 at 4:40pm:



Because it is.

Xenophobia at its most pathetic.

When off-shore processing was introduced by the Rodent, I opposed it, and regarded it as a crime.

I still do, except Gillard and Abbott have both compounded the original crime by not halting it.

The Greens are the only ones to even come CLOSE to an acceptable solution.

The others can go to Hell.

Fraser is a whited sepulcher. His record on aboriginal issues is vile. Sorry Mal, you are on record and no amount of cuddling up to Lowitja O'Donoghue or trying to identify with the asylum shoppers will get you to heaven.

Fraser is a whited sepulcher. His record on aboriginal issues is vile. Sorry Mal, you are on record and no amount of cuddling up to Lowitja O'Donoghue or trying to identify with the asylum shoppers will get you to heaven.