Updated: 07:56, Sunday September 18, 2011
It’s been another unhappy weekend for the federal government, with Tony Abbott indicating he’s unlikely to back plans to changes laws so asylum seekers can be sent to Malaysia, and a government minister being chased in Sydney by pro-refugee activists.
The opposition leader hasn’t said yet what he will do, after he was briefed on Friday night by government experts on changes Julia Gillard plans to bring in to save her Malaysia solution, that the High Court has declared illegal.
But Mr Abbott says he’s concerned the planned changes strip away the protections for asylum seekers processed offshore.
The government needs the coalition’s backing to change the Migration Act, because the Greens say they won’t come to the party.
Meanwhile, Immigration Minister Chris Bowen was confronted by members of the Refugee Action Coalition in Sydney yesterday, who shouted at him and later followed him for about one kilometre down a road.
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