Asia-Pacific

Immigration debate 'killing the government'

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-07-14 18:50
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SYDNEY - Australian Immigration Minister Chris Evans has reportedly said misinformation about the immigration debate is "killing the government".

Fairfax Radio reported on Wednesday Evans told a private function that one of his greatest failures as minister has been his inability to control the debate and stop misinformation.

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In a later interview with Fairfax Radio Evans did not deny making the comments.

"I think that it's a debate that hasn't been based on the facts and that we've got to take the responsibility to make sure that it is focused on the facts rather than a lot of claims that are made about some of these issues," he said.

"Well I've acknowledged publicly on numerous occasions this has been a difficult debate for the government over a long period of time," he added.

"But Julia Gillard, when she became Prime Minister, sought to address it and took the opportunity to confront the issues and talk about... we needed a frank and honest debate about it and we needed to focus on the facts," he said.

The federal government has been under pressure over the issues of asylum seekers and population growth ahead of the imminent election.  

Prime Minister Julia Gillard has sought to allay community concerns by flagging the possible establishment of a asylum seeker processing center in Timor-Leste, but there are doubts it can get off the ground.