Green senator to lodge complaint on asylum seeker comments

As the storm over opposition immigration spokesman Scott Morrison's call for asylum seekers living in the community to be monitored by police and conform to ''behaviour protocols'' entered its second day, Senator Hanson-Young also called for parliamentarians to stop vilifying asylum seekers and refugees.

Mr Morrison's comments on Wednesday followed the news that a Sri Lankan asylum seeker had been charged over the sexual assault of a Macquarie University student.

There are 8700 asylum seekers living in the community on bridging visas, but Mr Morrison said that one having been charged with a crime was evidence that all should be monitored, and police should be consulted and notified before they were given permission to move into a particular area.

Senator Hanson-Young will on Thursday introduce a motion to the Senate calling for parliamentarians to condemn any vilification of asylum seekers and refugees, saying she was appalled by the ''vile comments and further vilification from the opposition today''.

Senator Hanson-Young said she would also file several complaints about the language used by radio "shock jocks" about asylum seekers in the past 24 hours, including against 2GB's Ray Hadley.

''We are parliamentarians. We are elected members of our communities and we have a responsibility to uphold standards that are appropriate. The opposition's attempt yesterday to link a very unfortunate and incredibly awful circumstance for one young woman to the entire debate on refugees and asylum seekers in Australia was disgusting . . . it should be left to the court.

''This whole idea of having to establish behaviour protocols, as the Coalition has called for, is ludicrous. We have behaviour protocols; it's called the law.''

But senior Liberal MP Eric Abetz said on Thursday that the plan would help build a cohesive society.

''I would have thought that it would be a good idea to say that somebody's moving next door to you, that might not be able to have all the English language skills you might have normally have expected or they come from a traumatised background,'' he said.

Opposition Leader Tony Abbott rejected any suggestion the Coalition was trying to stir up community concerns about asylum seekers.

''If anyone is guilty of that, I would ask you to look at what the government has had to say recently about section 457 visas,'' he said.

Labor Senator Doug Cameron said there was no evidence refugees or asylum seekers in Australia were criminals.

''The dog whistle you have just seen is the worst politics I have witnessed for many years in this parliament,'' he said.

The debate coincides with the launch of a campaign on Thursday calling for asylum seekers released into the community on bridging visas to be given the right to work.

Under changes announced by the government in November, none of the asylum seekers who arrived in Australia after August 13, and released into the community while their claims are determined, will be allowed to work under the government's ''no-advantage'' policy.

The ''right to work'' campaign is supported by Uniting Care Justice, the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre, Amnesty International, Human Rights Law Centre, the Australian Council for International Development, GetUp! and others.

Psychiatrist and former Australian of the Year Patrick McGorry and former Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser have also supported the campaign.

''History has proven that having asylum seekers live on welfare without any training or skill development for five years deliberately hinders their potential to be able to gain employment when they do achieve permanent residency – and for boat arrivals 90.8 per cent do become permanent residents in Australia,'' the campaign's website states.

''The contribution of asylum seekers to our community, economy and the Australian way of life is invaluable.''

– with AAP

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