Australia's Immigration minister a bit of a wuss.

Australia: Perhaps he should get an easier job instead of this post which seems to require some confidence and moral values on how to decide immigration cases.

THE Immigration Minister, Chris Evans, is rethinking his godlike sway over the fate of would-be immigrants whose appeals pour into his office at the rate of more than 11 a day. Pleas for ministerial intervention from refugees and others whose requests to settle in Australia have been rejected by officialdom have soared to more than 4000 a year, more than 10 times the level of 12 years ago. "I have formed the view that I have too much power," Senator Evans told a Senate estimates committee yesterday. "I think the [Immigration and Citizenship] Act is unlike any other act I have seen in terms of the power given to the minister to make decisions about individual cases. "I am uncomfortable with that, not just because of concern about playing God, but also because of the lack of transparency and accountability for those decisions and the lack in some cases of any appeal rights against those decisions." Senator Evans said he believed the ministerial intervention powers were established to be used in rare cases, but had now become "very much the norm". Intervention by the minister may be sought by those who have exhausted their rights before the Refugee Review Tribunal or the Migration Review Tribunal. Senator Evans said many cases involved difficult decisions such as balancing the rights of children and those with a criminal history. There were "no easy solutions".

Typical center-left politician, hand wriggy and undecided.