By Jill Fraser
MELBOURNE
Australian Immigration Minister Scott Morrison has ridiculed a Greens' senator’s weeklong fact-finding mission in Cambodia, which is aimed at determining its ability to resettle refugees.
Sarah Hanson-Young is in the southeast Asian country to ascertain the conditions likely to confront refugees who will be resettled in Cambodia under a bilateral deal secured by Morrison in September.
The deal would see refugees currently held on Nauru transferred to the Kingdom for final settlement.
Speaking on Sydney’s Radio 2GB Morrison told broadcaster Ray Hadley that the words “fact and Sarah Hanson-Young are a contradiction in terms.”
Predicting the Greens Senator will “whinge and complain like she always does” the immigration minister went on to say “and people will ignore her as they should”.
Hanson-Young is documenting the details of her trip on her Twitter page.
One tweet shows a sign hanging in a taxi. It warns against sexually abusing children. Hanson-Young asks: “How will Aust govt protect the young refugee girls they dump here?’
On Tuesday, the immigration minister announced that asylum seekers who registered with the United Nations in Indonesia after June this year will no longer be eligible for resettlement in Australia.
"These changes should reduce the movement of asylum seekers to Indonesia and encourage them to seek resettlement in or from countries of first asylum," Morrison said.
In response, Hanson-Young posted on Twitter: “It seems there's no limits to @ScottMorrisonMP cruel arrogant obsession with giving less refugees help and care.”
Greens Leader Christine Milne described the decision as disgraceful.
"This is more cruelty, it's unacceptable, and it just shows the rest of the world that Australia is a very hard-hearted, self-centred country, and that is a very bad place for us to be in a global context," she said.
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