Bring back the TPV?

In an interview on radio this morning the opposition leader advocated bringing back the temporary protection visa ("TPV"). TPV's were introduced by the Howard government as a way of deterring asylum seekers arriving by boat - it required refugees to reapply for their visa every three years and had no family reunion rights.

These visas were abolished by the Rudd government (who as I have said previously is taking a more humane policy stance on refugees). Now, the Opposition is saying "we told you so" in relation to the recent boat incidents. If I can quote from Mr Turnbull's interview:

"...between 2002 and the end of 2008, fiscal year 2008, there were around half as many people arriving as have arrived since August last year. So the fact of the matter is since the TPV’s were abolished by the Rudd Government there has been a dramatic increase. Now bear this in mind, the people smugglers are a business. They are charging people big money and they cannot succeed in their business unless they can get people into Australia."

However, he probably does have a point if:

"The objective of our policy should be no unauthorised boats, boat arrivals. We don’t want them. It’s bad in terms of our….the integrity of our borders and it also poses enormous danger to life and limb on the high seas – not just of the passengers but as we’ve seen also of our Navel personnel."

This is a difficult policy issue, but I don't think the TPV is the way to go.

A full transcript of the interview is available on Mr Turnbull's website.