Legal experts have predicted the Coalition's plan to deny legal rights to asylum seekers would provoke a flood of appeals to the High Court.
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With the major parties united on stopping the boats and denying permanent settlement to asylum seekers who come by boat, the Coalition upped the ante on Friday, announcing it would deny the right of asylum seekers to appeal negative assessments to the courts.
But constitutional law expert George Williams said any move to cut the rights of asylum seekers in the lower courts would bring the High Court to a standstill with appeals.
Professor Williams represented an asylum seeker, ''S17'', in a 2003 High Court case that guaranteed the rights of Australians and asylum seekers alike to appeal to that court.
''What the High Court said in that case is that you can't insulate the decision of government officials from judicial review,'' he said. ''That is entrenched in the constitution and could only be taken away by referendum.''
The Coalition also announced for the first time it would retrospectively apply its tough temporary protection visa scheme to more than 30,000 asylum seekers who have already arrived in Australia and who are awaiting refugee assessment decisions.
Echoing former prime minister John Howard, Opposition Leader Tony Abbott said: ''This is our country and we determine who comes here''. In 2001, Mr Howard declared: ''We will decide who comes to this country and the circumstances in which they come.''
Opposition immigration spokesman Scott Morrison conceded asylum seekers would still have the right to appeal to the High Court, but said a Coalition government would move to cut their access to the Refugee Review Tribunal and the Federal Court.
"I know that's difficult,'' Mr Morrison said. ''But that is the task,that is the goal.''
The plan immediately came under attack from lawyers.
Human Rights Law Centre director Daniel Webb said: ''these measures are designed specifically to inflict suffering on innocent people, so they are very likely to be challenged. Lawyers around the country will be looking for ways to protect their clients from these cruel policies.''
Immigration Minister Tony Burke said Labor's resettlement deal with Papua New Guinea - which denies all asylum seekers who come by boat the chance to settle in Australia and instead proposes sending them to PNG and Nauru for processing and resettlement - made the Coalition's announcement ''irrelevant''.
''The only possible reason to make an announcement like they've made today, is for a political desire to look tough.''
Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young said: ''Labor has 'no advantage' and now the Coalition has 'no shame'.''
''It's clear that this policy has nothing to do with deterrence as it will only impact on the people who have already arrived in Australia,'' she said. ''This is all about looking tough.''
Refugee Council of Australia president Phil Glendenning said legal avenues for appeal existed ''because mistakes are made''.
''For asylum seekers, a mistake by a decision-maker may lead to them being returned to danger and, in many cases, to their deaths,'' he said.