According to the Edmund Rice Centre, Malaysia's poor human rights record and refusal to sign the Refugee Convention, raise deep fears for the asylum-seeker deportation deal announced by the Australian Government at the weekend.

In the wake of a week that saw Australian Federal Police using tear gas and 'bean-bag bullets' to end asylum seeker protests on Christmas Island, Edmund Rice Centre Director, Phil Glendenning, today called for a major policy overhaul of Australia's management of asylum-seekers.

The Edmund Rice Centre today congratulated the Federal Government on the decision to introduce a carbon price from July next year, with Green and Independent support.