ImmigrationWell, if Kevin Rudd imagines his latest Government-on-the-run PNG solution to Australia’s asylum-seeker crisis is watertight he’d better think againThis deal has as many holes in it as a block of Swiss cheeseShadow Attorney General, George Brandis, yesterday called on the Government to release whatever legal advice it received from the Solicitor General before entering into the 2 page agreement with Papua New GuineaAttorney General, Mark Dreyfuss, refused the requestThe Attorney General does not comment on legal advice, his office saysIn other words, there probably was noneImagine entering into an open-ended, back-of-the-envelope deal with another country, at a potential cost of billions to taxpayers, and in the full knowledge that an earlier deal with Malaysia was struck down by the High Court, without taking legal adviceDavid Manne was the human rights lawyer who torpedoed the Gillard Government’s Malaysian solution in the High CourtHe said yesterday that this latest PNG agreement “does not and cannot provide the protection that people are entitled to”Ben Saul, a Professor of International Law at Sydney University, said it was “very unlikely” the PNG Government could guarantee asylum-seekers their rights under the UN ConventionOf course, the Gillard Government amended the Migration Act in 2011 to allow offshore processing in the national interest even where this is inconsistent with Australia’s international obligationsBut will the High Court buy that?I wouldn’t bank on it

The Alan Jones Breakfast show: Highlights

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