THE federal government remains committed to closing the Pontville Immigration Detention Centre next month despite increasing support for it to remain open.
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Tasmania's Anglican Bishop John Harrower yesterday said he had asked Immigration Minister Chris Bowen to review his decision to close the centre, which the government only intended as a temporary facility.
Bishop Harrower said he understood the initial decision to keep the centre open for six months, particularly in light of community concern at that time.
``The minister should now be assured of the level of local community support,'' Bishop Harrower said.
He said the minister should not decide to close the centre purely because he wanted to avoid a backflip.
``These people are so concerned about politics that they're not actually concerned about people,'' he said.
Brighton Mayor Tony Foster agreed that the community attitude had changed since the centre was announced last year.
Cr Foster said his greatest concern was the loss of 230 jobs with the centre's closure as well as the effect on local businesses that supplied goods and services to the centre.
He said the silence from Tasmanian politicians had been ``deafening''. ``If this was a call centre or some other private business in Tasmania, they'd all be jumping up and down,'' he said.
Premier Lara Giddings said yesterday that she had raised concerns with the federal government about the loss of jobs that the closure would cause.
``Having said that, of course we'd prefer not to have people behind barbed wire in this state, but it is proving to be one of the best detention centres in Australia,'' she said.
A spokeswoman for Mr Bowen said: ``This (community) feedback demonstrates how well the centre is working and the benefits that it has provided.
``However, the government intends to close the facility after a period of six months, as originally announced.''
