Each student is to choose a policy or social issue that featured in state or federal election in the past 5 years. These could include: Asylum Seekers Aged Care Child Protection Climate change Closing...

A policy or social issue: Asylum Seekers
Introduction
A policy or social issue based on Asylum seekers is selected for discussion purpose from the perspective of two political parties of the country-Australian Labour party and Liberal Party of Australia. Several facts and evidences are collected from both political party policies and statements for gaining insight regarding political parties’ approaches and ideologies towards asylum seekers in the country.
Asylum seekers are termed as one of the most vulnerable population group on the world’s map, who are consistently putting efforts for escaping from mental and emotional torture and struggling for saving and surviving their lives. In general terms, asylum seekers are people who travel and come to a country and seeking assistance from leaders for their protection. More than sixty thousand people have reached Australia in the last 20 years who are either unable or unwilling to return to their country due to well-grounded fear of being prosecuted on grounds of race, religion, nationality, political opinion and other social hurdles.
Brief overview of the current context of the issue
Currently, there are thousands of asylum seekers and several recognised refugees who are being held in or around the country. Asylum seekers who entered in the country are being detained primarily in Nauru and on Manus Island located in Papua New Guinea (Pearson, 2020). As per the provisions of Migration Act 1958, asylum seekers who arrive in the country whether on offshore place or on the mainland without having a valid visa are held or detained as immigrants until they are provided with valid visa or official permission of leaving the country. It is worth mentioning that immigration detention in the country is allowed for indefinite time, means there is no limit or restriction in law or policy with regard to the length of time for which immigrants are detained. Likewise, there are thousands of asylum seekers and refugees who spend high amount of time in getting their refugee claim to be assessed and allowed. The formality of health, identity and security checks take high time for completion, and, not provided with any kind of protection in this process as well (Refugee Council of Australia, 2020).
While the mandatory or compulsory detention of asylum seekers remains in place in the country, there are high numbers of asylum seekers and refugees who are forcibly transferred to immigration detention since 2010 (Asylum seekers and refugees, 2020). In 2010, it is found that Australian government announced that it started the process of moving large numbers of refugees, unaccompanied minors, families and children into the community detention. Following this, Australian government in the year 2011 announced for conducting initial health, security and identity checks and other aspects for people who are living or staying under immigration detention facilities. It is proposed to transfer immigrants into community, providing them visas or else providing them permanent placement in communities (Asylum seekers and refugees, 2020).
Moving ahead, Australian government in the year 2012 announced that asylum seekers who are eligible for moving to a third country and, accidentally arrived at Australian’s offshore places are allowed to move into third country. This is done due to overcrowding of Australia’s immigration network and other kinds of social and capacity constraints in the detection facilities. The immigration detention facilities located in Nauru and Manus Island for accommodating asylum seekers are getting overcrowded and facing other capacity constraints. In this way, it is realised that Australian Commission is always concerned for thousands of immigrants held in immigration detention facilities; therefore, it always welcomes the increased use of community detention facilities (Australia's Human Rights Obligations, 2020).
The year 2020 is marked as the seventh anniversary of Australia’s disastrous political and government decision of transferring asylum seekers to offshore places or destinations. Australian government is criticised heavily for forcibly transferring asylum seekers to immigration detention camps located at Papua New Guinea and Nauru. Till now, it has transferred more than 3,000 asylum seekers to Nauru and Papua New Guinea (Pearson, 2020). The forcibly transfer of asylum seekers to offshore places and destinations is always been a debatable topic in the political history of Australia.
How chosen issue is presented by two political parties
The two political parties- Australian Labour party and Liberal Party of Australia abbreviated as Labour and Liberal are presenting diverging set of opinions and perspectives on policy statements related to asylum seekers. For instance, the Liberal party argues that Australia has a ‘border failure’ therefore party has formulated ‘Border Protection’ plan where it aimed to protect and secure Australia’s people lives. The ‘Border Protection’ policy of Liberal government claimed that it’s polices are adequate enough in stopping boats, limiting entry and movements of smugglers, and, other criminal activities. It has resulted in an exponential increase in the cancellation of visas of criminals, succeeded in protecting country’s citizens by cancelling dual citizens’ membership which is used for engaging in terrorist activities (Today The Liberal Party’s Views On Immigration Into Australia, 2019).
All these efforts are aimed at getting increased control over criminal and terrorist activities, illegal import of drugs, and resettling refugees in third countries. All these are considered as good things and points of Liberal party policy, but, still, it is fighting and struggling a lot in the process. The biggest criticism is on party’s push and force to slash or reduce down immigration intake into country which is witnessed in the form of cancellation of visas, temporary work arrangements, and, consistently tightening migration regulations which is making incredibly difficult for asylum seekers to get permanent residency in Australia (Greene, 2019).
Labour government, on the other hand, is also found in general agreement on implementing measures for dealing with unauthorised entry of asylum seekers in the country. It has also adopted and implemented variety of border protection and anti-smuggling measures in order to deal with new waves of asylum seekers taking unauthorised entry in the country by waterways and other transport mediums. Some of the key measures that have been supported and implemented by Labour government include mandatory detention of unauthorised boat arrivals of immigrants, offshore processing arrangement, and many more. For controlling increases in unauthorised boat arrivals in the country, Labour government...