Of the 9.1 million people who the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) describes as refugees, there are 827, 323 with outstanding applications for asylum around the world. This compares to 9.6 million refugees five years ago and 912,291 people still seeking asylum. Five years prior to that, there were 11.5 million refugees worldwide and 1.3 million seeking asylum.
Looking at even more recent data, between January and August 2009, there were 226,069 asylum applications worldwide. During the same period in 2008 there were 226,857 applications.
So much for the Rudd Government’s claim that international push forces are the cause of 41 boat arrivals since last August with almost 2,000 people on board, putting their lives at risk.
On border protection, like so many issues, Kevin Rudd seems to act more like he is the Secretary General of the UN rather than the Prime Minister of Australia.
As Philip Ruddock noted in yesterday’s Australian, it is the domestic remedies we put in place as a Government that made the real difference, over and above our international actions.
The Rudd Labor Government have fiddled with the thermostat on Australia’s border protection regime and the people smugglers have picked up on the change. They must now take responsibility for the consequences of their actions, instead of sheeting the blame off to forces beyond their control.
The Government is in complete denial about the growing nature of this problem and are completely disconnected from the community’s concerns about their failure to deal to this issue. According to the Government, the problem is the Opposition.
Well don’t shoot the messenger Kevin, the Coalition knows what Australians expect from their Government when it comes to border protection and you’re not measuring up.
Tough talk is one thing, but people smugglers form their impression based on what you do, not what you say. And at the moment all you’re doing is buying more bunk beds for their customers on Christmas Island and potentially in Darwin (a complete breach of your pre-election promise).
The question is not what would the Opposition do, we’re not in Government. The question is what is the Government going to do – that’s what the people smugglers are watching for.
On the Coalition’s watch illegal boat arrivals went to zero. That is an undisputed fact. We took the actions we felt necessary at the time and got the results.
The Government sees this result as a shameful record. On that criteria, no wonder they think they’re doing such a good job now.
The Coalition believes we need an urgent inquiry into how the Government has lost control of our borders, with full access to the information necessary to assess the situation and make recommendations on what we need to do today to fix it.
The Government’s response has been to say that everything is fine. Just like with our spiralling debt, they claim we’re just victims of international forces.
Their other response has been to lecture those who criticise their approach.
Just yesterday I was invited by the Government to examine my conscience for highlighting their failures in this area, as if I had something to be personally ashamed off. Well sorry, I don’t.
I am very comfortable with Australia’s record of looking after the world’s refugees and do not take kindly to suggestions that we are not doing our part.
Each year Australia takes in excess of 13,000 people as part of our refugee and humanitarian assistance programme. We account for around 3.5% of worldwide asylum claims. We are a generous country who does more than our share of the heavy lifting.
In 1954, under the Menzies Government, Australia was one of the first countries to ratify the UN Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, having been one of just 26 countries to attend the original Conference in 1951, that created the Convention.
There are now more than 140 signatories to the UN Convention on Refugees. Interestingly, the list of countries between the Middle East and Australia who are not signatories include Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, India, Pakistan, Singapore and Vietnam, just to name a few.
In fact in our region, together with New Zealand, the only other signatories are China, Cambodia and the Philippines.
No wonder Australia is a destination of choice for those heading east from Sri Lanka, Afghanistan or Iraq. But this is not new, it has been the case since the fifties.
In addition to getting Indonesia and others in our region to do their part in stemming the flow of boats to our shore, a good start would be encouraging them to take up their own responsibilities under this global charter.
The Labor Party was happy in Opposition for Australia to be labelled a pariah for not signing the Kyoto protocol. Why then has it been so silent on the responsibility of other nations to do their bit for the world’s refugees.
According to the UNHCR, there are around 90,000 people living in UN assisted refugee camps in Sudan and 5,870 are currently seeking asylum, awaiting the outcome of their application.
When we consider our approach to refugee policy in this country, we should keep these people in the forefront of our minds.
Each day they sit in these oppressive circumstances doing what they can to keep themselves and their families alive. Every day they wait for news that their claim has been accepted.
It’s a simple question of fairness. Their chances of success should not be diminished because another has chosen to bypass our process.
Just as it was back in 2001, fairness, equality of access and our sovereign right for our own processes to be respected, is what this debate is all about.
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