Boat People

It’s the third week of January and we’re facing a long year in politics. With no federal election due until 2013 we could be in for a 12-month bout of deja vu, as ALP leadership speculation rumbles on, people keep giving Tony Abbott lots of free advice (because 54/46 two-party preferred is not impressive enough polling), and boatloads of asylum seekers keep setting off from Java.

So nothing’s changed. Well, that would be too easy. Actually, as 2012 dawns the political landscape has become a bit skewwhiff.

Robert Manne started it all just before Christmas, when he wrote a piece in The Monthly admitting what a lot of lefties had already started to think, but hadn’t yet been game to say - that while they hated John Howard’s Pacific Solution, it did, indeed, stop the boats. And with no boats there were no drownings, and upon reflection, that was a pretty good result.

Continue reading "Whose side are you on? An upside-down start to 2012" »

The government’s failure to “stop the boats” is an albatross around its neck and the issue is driving the political agenda. Their asylum seeker problem is two-fold. Scores are dying trying to reach Australia by boat and the government is losing support by its failure to stop those who don’t. However, the solution to both problems is simple - a blanket ban on accepting boat people as refugees.

Australia and Malaysia have tentatively agreed to exchange 800 boat people for 4000 confirmed refugees. The underlying assumption is that asylum seekers will be deterred from making to voyage to Australia by the prospect of ending up in Malaysia. Although the Greens have spit the dummy over Malaysia’s human rights record, the inhospitality of partner countries is the very reason these agreements may deter some boat people from coming.

Yet the Malaysian agreement doesn’t go far enough to fully deter asylum seekers and entering Australia will be a lottery with enticing odds. You don’t need to have an abacus to calculate that if arrival trends continue - 6535 people having arrived in Australia by boat last year - the vast majority will have an opportunity to stay in Australia. 

Continue reading "Stop groupthink: A blanket ban will stop the boats" »

Look, I didn’t want to interfere but it seems the Government just can’t do it without me, so here it is. Please pass on to your local spin doctor.

1. Stick to your guns

Honestly kids, I just can’t say this enough: People would much prefer an honest person saying something they disagree with than a liar telling them what they want to hear. The ALP’s policy is for a more humane approach to asylum seekers and abiding by our international obligations under the UN charter.

Continue reading "Solving the asylum seeker problem in three easy steps" »

Talkback radio, that eternally squawking companion, last week carried the more disturbing sound of a grown man weeping.

As the gruff voice melted into tears, I imagined he must be talking about the poor cows we’d seen on Four Corners, half beheaded and in infinite pain. Or the uncertain fate of the asylum seeker children.

Nup. He was upset about Port Adelaide. SA’s poor, crippled football team. It seems we all only have a finite amount of caring in us; we have to limit how much we care and what for, or we would fall apart. Some of us pour all our caring into sport, or plants, or train timetables, and have nothing left afterwards.

Continue reading "Who ate all the compassion pie?" »

“Everyone has been accounted for…..we think.”

The chaotic events on Christmas Island last week were the clearest sign of dysfunction in Australia’s immigration detention system in close to a decade.

Had it not been for the recent devastation in Japan, images of rioting, tear gas, fires and general pandemonium on Christmas Island would have led every bulletin and been on the front page of every paper in the land. That they were not has bought the Government some breathing room, unfortunately, their response thus far appears to be largely in keeping with the ham-fisted ineptitude that has characterised their time in office.

Continue reading "Christmas Island is now a symbol of policy failure" »

You’ve heard a lot about the asylum policy debate in the media. The Government announces a new policy. The opposition denounces any new policy. Talk back radio goes back and forth about the best way to deal with this issue. If all this noise about asylum seekers makes you almost believe there is thought put into how to develop best practice approaches, think again. You’ve been conned.

For those of you who have seen The Usual Suspects, asylum seekers are Kaiser Sozé. A made up bogey-man criminal used to distract you from what is really going on.

It’s all just a political marketing campaign from both parties aimed at marginal seat voters. They use the boatpeople debate to define their party’s image. ‘Cruel to be kind’ for the Coalition, with ‘tough but humane’ for Labor. The reality is, when you analyse policies from both parties from a purely rationalist public policy angle, they both fail the test.

Continue reading "Both parties are all at sea on asylum seekers" »

The heartbreaking boat crash off Christmas Island is the tragic climax of the confused and contradictory approach to asylum seekers that is now strangling the Labor Party. This confusion was perfectly crystalised in a small item buried in the Federal Budget in May this year.

In an obvious attempt to throw a blanket on the issue, the Rudd Government had just announced a freeze on processing Afghani asylum claims, signalling it expected to shortly reclassify the war-torn Middle-East country as safe to return to.

Yet before any final decision had been made the Government quietly inserted $5.8 million to pay for two immigration officers to go to Kabul to repatriate deported asylum seekers.

Continue reading "How Labor wedged itself into a bad policy on boat people" »

Julia Gillard is not just between a rock and a hard place in the aftermath of the Christmas Island tragedy - she’s wedged between an angry Left and a rabid Right.

It was hardly unexpected that Andrew Bolt and his gang quickly trotted out the “blood on her hands” mantra after dozens of asylum-seekers met their awful deaths yesterday, but they’ve been joined by a loud chorus of refugee advocates claiming the atrocity could have been prevented with a softer government policy.

The only people not attacking the Prime Minister today are the Opposition, who’ve remained for the past 24 hours particularly civil towards Gillard and her Immigration Minister Chris Bowen. And Gillard’s announcement this afternoon of a standing group including the Opposition and representatives from the Greens to examine the fact of the boat’s sinking could well prolong that cease-fire beyond the usual limits.

Continue reading "The day both extremes almost met in the middle" »

Today’s horror below the cliffs of Christmas Island will produce a heated political debate over asylum seeker policy. It has been deferred for now, but it is inevitable.

The only uncontested point will be the fact that those on the wrecked boat believed that reaching land would give them a good chance of getting permanent refuge.

But it is not automatically correct to then argue that the Federal Government was responsible for the deaths because it didn’t eliminate the prospect of asylum.

Continue reading "Who’ll blink first and score points off Christmas Island" »

Nauru has been struggling to get a good run in the press of late.  Tales of business largesse, overseas trips, and big deals make juicy copy, leaving scant oxygen for any other news about Nauru. Coupled with the reporting on the detention centre which characterised Nauru as a bleak island in the middle of the Pacific, the Australian public could be forgiven for having a dim view of the place.

And yet such a view would not appreciate the deep history and friendship which has existed between Nauru and Australia since Nauru’s independence and before.

Originally known as Pleasant Island for its natural environment and the friendliness of its people Nauru is one of two nations (the other being Papua New Guinea) which has a history of Australian administration pre-independence. This history alone means Australia has a particular role of friendship to play in modern Nauru.

Continue reading "Nauru: we should treat our neighbour with more respect" »

The last thing Adelaide Hills residents would have expected to hear this week was that their community would be home to Labor’s newest detention centre.

The ambush announcement by the Prime Minister on Monday to turn the defence housing site at Inverbrackie near Woodside in South Australia into a detention centre has caused enormous concern amongst local residents. 

Now, I know there are people out there who consider themselves morally superior to me.  So to them I make this point very clear to begin with - my issue is not with asylum seekers; my issue is with this Labor Government and the decisions it has made.

Continue reading "Labor detention centres coming to a town near you" »

The Prime Minister made a major mistake on Monday when she said “I don’t think it’s the Australian way to have kids behind razor-wire.”

Whether it’s as a deterrent or something else, this has in fact, been the Australian way since the early 1990s. The announcement that more families and children will be moved out of detention centres was accompanied by another, that two new centre will be constructed near Adelaide and Perth.

The rhetoric of nationalism and security were once again set upon asylum-seekers.

Continue reading "The real reason you’re scared of boat people" »

Julia Gillard’s “more detention” announcement is no solution for asylum seekers.

The Labor government has announced that children and families are to be released from detention. If you thought so, look again. The announcement is a shameful sleight of hand.

A closer look shows that the government’s announcement falls a long way short of actually releasing children and families. Those that are
“released”, will live in the community under “residence determinations” with possible curfews and other restrictive conditions set by the Minister.

Continue reading "This is no solution for asylum seekers - it’s a con job" »

There’s a rather odd immigration debate taking place in this election, characterised appropriately enough, by today’s immigration debate between Tony Burke and Scott Morrison. 

Minister for (*sustainable) Population Tony Burke began his address talking about all those things that Labor have been stressing in the population debate: sustainability on region by region, arguing that the Coalition are all over the place with their policy and refusing to be pushed into naming a goal population figure: “A sustainable Australia involves a level of detail that will not be solved by finding a glib magic number,” Mr Bourke told the National Press Club today.

Then Opposition immigration spokesman Scott Morrison got up and made his pitch on immigration: it involved talking about boat people almost the entire time. At one point exciting a group of student don John Howard masks and start screaming at Morrison.

Continue reading "The two speed immigration debate" »

If today’s Newspoll is an accurate reflection of voter intentions across the board, Julia Gillard won’t just win the election, she’ll deliver Labor candidates into almost 100 of the 150 seats in the House of Representatives.

The Newspoll bump for the ALP, putting it at 55 per cent on the 2PP, compared to 45 for the Coalition, has been attributed to a boost in the Green primary vote, from 10 per cent to 12 per cent. Both those points have been automatically awarded to Labor on the preference assumptions.

This looked a little presumptuous until Bob Brown confirmed this morning the Greens had done a deal to send Labor preferences in 50 key Lower House seats, in exchange for some love the other way in the Senate.

Continue reading "Does this mean we can all pack up and go home?" »

When Julia Gillard stepped to the microphone at the Lowy Institute on Tuesday morning she was hoping to neutralise border protection as an election issue. Instead she had the opposite effect.

East Timor’s President Jose Ramos-Horta was on Lateline last night showing how it’s done. His performance in sensible diplomacy and measured thinking made Gillard’s 24 hours of backdowns, rewrites and plan B’s look terribly amateur.

And instead of taking heat out of the issue, Gillard has handed Tony Abbott the ammunition he’s been desperately looking for since her elevation at the end of last month. Here’s how it’s played out so far.

Continue reading "Campaign countdown: the 2-day border protection plan" »

Something appears to have gone awry with our new Prime Minister Julia Gillard. By all accounts, those who know the PM hold her in high regard as a pleasant and personable woman. However, she seems to have forgotten her manners, given her bullish behaviour towards our northern neighbours in East Timor.

The diplomatic gaffe now unfolding from Ms Gillard’s Pacific East Timor Solution reflects Kevin Rudd’s own arrogant approach to foreign affairs.

The Labor Government 1.0 saw Mr Rudd announce his idea for an Asia Pacific Community, to our incredulous neighbours, a plan which never got off the ground thanks largely in part to Rudd’s failure to consult with Japan, Malaysia, Singapore and other ASEAN nations. It was trademark Rudd – no consultation on policy because Rudd knew best.

Continue reading "Gillard’s bad diplomacy is enough to drive you Xananas" »

Update 4.50pm: The Prime Minister appears to have got herself into serious hot water over her plan for a regional processing centre, just telling Brisbane radio 4BC that she never said where it was going to be. You can listen to the interview here. The Australian is also reporting East Timor’s Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao has requested Gillard hold off calling him until her plan is more mature.

Julia Gillard took to the high seas yesterday in a bid to sell her new Dili Solution on boat people, but it was her voyage on HMAS Lateline last night that may have left her feeling a little green about the gills.

A slightly disheveled-looking PM was grilled by Tony Jones over the details of her plan for a “regional processing centre” for boat people and put in a less than glossy performance.

Under pressure from Jones over her failure to deal with East Timor’s Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao before announcing her bold plan, Gillard uncharacteristically fell back on bureucratic speak, putting words like “tasked” and “auspiced” on high rotation. (“Auspiced” - good grief).

Continue reading "Campaign countdown: Gillard’s boat springs a leak" »

Yesterday, after rampant speculation, Prime Minister Gillard announced the Australian Government’s new approach to asylum seekers.

This speech could have been used for yet another disappointing political point scoring exercise, but Amnesty International was hoping that the Prime Minister would use this opportunity to reframe the debate and remind Australians that seeking asylum is not a crime but a basic human right.

At 11:03 Julia Gillard started well by announcing an end to inflammatory politics about asylum seekers.

Continue reading "Gillard talked the talk on refugees, walks with a limp" »

Two things are crystal clear from yesterday’s policy shoot-out at the OK Corrale over asylum seekers.

One, that an election is now perilously close and could be called within days. The rate at which Julia Gillard is crossing off the problem areas suggests she wants to go to Yarralumla very soon.

And two, that Ms Gillard and Tony Abbott believe that election can be won or lost on this policy alone.

Continue reading "Leaders aim right to stop the boats that leak votes" »

Tony Abbott said yesterday that if he was Prime Minister he would introduce a policy that sends asylum seekers “back” if they arrive without identity documents.

When I heard this, my stomach turned.  Like every other lawyer who provides advice to asylum seekers, I know this approach ignores the realities of obtaining identity documents in countries where persecution is rife.

Sensibly, Julia Gillard rejected “turning boats back”, saying that it would set Australian customs and defence officials up for sabotage. She also pointed out “the practical reality that there is nowhere to turn boats back to.” But for me what gets lost in the asylum seeker debate is the fact that we are dealing with unique people, with unique stories to tell.

Continue reading "Why are we so afraid of people seeking asylum?" »

Julia Gillard is expected to announce her people smuggling policy today, after a Cabinet meeting yesterday to determine just how un-PC the Government could afford to get on the issue. Tony Burke had the fun task last night of going on Q and A without giving away what might be in the announcement, a piece of rhetorical gymnastics he performed admirably.

But Tony Abbott might have blinked first - with this morning’s Daily Telegraph reporting his new “get tougher” stance on boat people would include a presumption against refugee status for anyone believed to have destroyed their own documentation.

According to Simon Benson: “The power to rubber-stamp applications will also be removed from assessors at Christmas Island, with the minister for immigration under a Coalition government granted the right to intervene in any case to refuse entry through the courts.”

Continue reading "Campaign countdown: and then a jump to the riiiiiight" »

I’m guessing that former prime minister Malcolm Fraser and Western Australian woman Jo Ruprecht wouldn’t agree on much when it comes to federal politics.

At the launch of Refugee Week in Sydney yesterday, Mr Fraser joined forces with the vocal minority once more, calling for greater compassion towards asylum seekers, and attacking both sides of politics for their race “to see who can be the toughest” in their pre-election rhetoric.

Unfortunately for Mr Fraser and the good folk at the Refugee Council of Australia, it seems the public view is very much running one way when it comes to the asylum seeker debate.

Continue reading "The friction where asylum seekers meet unwilling hosts" »

At the press conference announcing his hard-line policy on asylum seekers Tony Abbott declared himself ‘a big risk to people smugglers’. While he claimed that ‘if I get elected, people smugglers will go out of business’, Abbott stressed that ‘my argument is not with desperate people who want a better life’.

If only it were that simple. The reality is that the Opposition’s policy constitutes a grave risk to traumatized people who will, if the policy is implemented, be traumatized further.

Temporary protection visas will be reintroduced for irregular maritime arrivals who are found to engage Australia’s protection obligations, as well as for others.

Continue reading "Abbott’s asylum seeker policy is out of its mind" »

Update 10.30am: Acting chief of the defence force Lieutenant General David Hurley, and the acting defence minister Greg Combet have also just confirmed the deaths, and said the soldiers’ families had requested their names not be released.

Update 10.10am: Queensland Premier Anna Bligh has confirmed two Australian soldiers were killed. More here.

Details are still emerging but Australians are believed among the casualties in the most deadly day this year for allied forces in Afghanistan.

A spokesman for the Australian Defence Force confirmed an “an incident” involving the Mentoring Task Force and that next of kin had been informed, though did not provide further details. The Courier-Mail in Brisbane, where the MTF is based, is reporting two Australian soldiers were killed in the incident. If confirmed it will bring the number of Australian soldiers killed in Afghanistan to 13 since 2002.

Last night the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force confirmed an improvised explosive device incident that killed two soldiers in southern Afghanistan, where Australian troops are based.

Continue reading "Callous reminders of why Afghans still want to flee" »

Tony Abbott wants to stop the boats.  Can we do this?

I was recently in Djibouti, a small country that is very important in the world of people smuggling because of its location.  Djibouti is wedged between Somalia, Ethiopia and Eritrea, some of the most conflict-ridden countries in the world.  In contrast, Djibouti is relatively stable. Importantly it has a long coastline in the Gulf of Aden.  A fishing boat can reach Yemen in under two hours.

Despite its peace, Djibouti is a very poor country.  Women still cart water on their backs. The CIA Fact-book describes the country as “mostly wasteland”.

Continue reading "The boats can be stopped, if war and hunger are too" »

DOES anyone in the Rudd Government know morse code? Because it seems the message that Australia is getting tough on asylum seekers is not reaching the people smugglers or their human cargo.

More than a week after the Government trumpeted a freeze on processing Sri Lankan and Afghani arrivals, citing improved circumstances in the two countries, there is no sign of an end to the boats heading our way.

In excess of 40 boats have been intercepted since the beginning of 2010 and the detention centre on Christmas Island is now full to overflowing with asylum seekers.

Continue reading "Rudd’s boat people election fix hasn’t fooled anyone" »

For almost a year now the Federal Government has been running the line the influx of boats carrying asylum seekers was due to “push factors” in their countries of origin, not “pull factors” related to its policy.

The PM has enjoyed using phrases words such as “unapologetic” in his rhetoric about boat people, even once describing people smugglers as “the vilest form of human life”. This argument, that it’s “tough but humane” strategy was working, started to look a bit frazzled with the arrival last month of the 100th SIEV since Mr Rudd became Prime Minister.

According to Laurie Oakes this morning: “Suspension of all new asylum seeker claims by people from Afghanistan and Sri Lanka is a major policy shift. If it doesn’t get the attention of people smugglers, the Government hopes their customers will hear the message.”

Continue reading "Push me, pull me: the asylum seeker story" »

On Tuesday, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees released the statistics on global asylum trends for 2009.

Somewhat predictably, a lot of fuss has been made about the increase in asylum applications received by Australia.  While numbers of asylum seekers globally have remained steady, Australia has seen a 30 per cent increase. A crude reading of this statistic may seem to support the “pull factor” argument, namely that Australian domestic legislation, not international situations, is to blame for seemingly large increases in the number of asylum applications.

But statistics, and percentages in particular, can be misleading. Australia receives so few applications for asylum that a 30 per cent increase means only 1400 additional people sought asylum here last year, as compared to 2008.

Continue reading "Australia really has a tiny number of asylum-seekers" »

In one of the stranger afternoon Christmas announcements by the Government (see above) late yesterday the office of Home Affairs Minister Brendan O’Connor announced that cruise ships would now be able to visit Christmas Island.

That’s right, the destination for hundreds of asylum seekers can now be accessed in luxury aboard the Pacific Sun Cruise Ship.

Upon receiving this yesterday The Punch had to make sure that it wasn’t a joke. Check out some of these lines in the release:

Continue reading "Visit Christmas Island this Christmas says P&O" »

One of my all time favourite arguments against allowing asylum seekers into this country is ‘this is a Christian nation.’ To which I say, What Would Jesus Do my Christian friend?

As the full scope of Australia’s fear and loathing is on display after Indonesian authorities opened fire on a boat full of Afghan asylum seekers and Courier Mail readers responded with applause, I think it’s time we reflect on what was done to asylum seekers in our name in the years between 2000 and 2008.

I doubt this will have any effect whatsoever on those who cheer the shooting of Afghans who have fled the tyranny in their homelands, but that’s because there are two types of people in this world - those on the side of human rights and those who would pick up a gun against their fellow humans and carry out acts of cruelty.

Continue reading "Fear and loathing in the Land Down Under" »

Here are the eight inconvenient truths in the ongoing conversation on boat people over the last weeks and months in The Punch.

The first inconvenient truth relates to the claim that Australia can’t handle an influx of refugees, and we shouldn’t be forced to because we already take so many. In the face of the kind of suffering, and the numbers involved, in refugee camps around the world, and given the extent of our wealth, Australians could take many more – thousands more – refugees than we do. We would need far better integration programs, but we have the wealth that should allow us to provide these too. We could also afford a far more generous, even if better targeted, refugee aid program, especially with our South East Asian neighbours.

The defence of popular opposition to greater refugee intake in this regard is the morally unsustainable defence of a privileged country that refuses to take its own values, and what are arguably its international moral obligations, seriously.

Continue reading "The eight inconvenient truths on boat people" »

Immigration has held a special place in the fears of many Australians but the figures tell a different story to that told by Liberal MP Kevin Andrews in his recent post on The Punch.

The data on asylum seekers and refugees in particular provides some much needed perspective on the current national debate.

When Mr Andrews informed Punch readers of the latest migration figures of 173,290 permanent migrants, he neglected to mention that in the last year of the Howard Government the number of permanent migrants to Australia reached 184,438.

Continue reading "Counterpunch: the figures on refugees tell the story" »

I missed the last week of Parliament during the ongoing debate concerning boat people.

I was in Uganda at a board meeting of my favorite charity Watoto, a charity that rescues abandoned children and babies and gives them hope and a future.

I’ve been going to Africa every year for many years working with some of the poorest people on earth.

Continue reading "Refugees are dying while they wait in the queue" »

If Malcolm Turnbull doesn’t sit Wilson Tuckey down on his comments about terrorists aboard asylum seeker boats he’s effectively endorsing the increasingly maverick MP’s comments.

In a door stop just now the Opposition Leader opted out of criticisng the Member for O’Connor’s assertion this morning that people coming here on boats could actually be terrorists.

``If you wanted to get into Australia and you have bad intentions, what do you do?’’ Mr Tuckey asked reporters in Canberra. “You insert yourself in a crowd of 100 for which there is great sympathy for the other 99. You go on a system where nobody brings their papers, you have no identity, you have no address.’‘

Mr Turnbull’s response: “Well he’s not the Prime Minister of Australia.”

Continue reading "Is Tuckey just Turnbull’s dog whistle on boat people?" »

It is with some alarm that I have seen the national political debate turn towards border protection in recent days. Like the debates that have preceded this one – myth appears to transcend the deep human dimension that is missed in the daily headlines. 

There is no doubt that the current policies may need to be reviewed but this does not abdicate our responsibility as a state and nation to look after those who have come from circumstances that we cannot begin to comprehend.

In my community I spent a bit of time getting to know an “asylum seeker” who left Sierra Leone in the hope that he could make a better life for his family.

Continue reading "This inhumane response belittles us as a nation" »

What would you do if you had fled halfway across the world to save your life, and ended up in a hot, urine-smelling demountable prison building, surrounded by security guards?

What if you didn’t speak the language and your jailers couldn’t be bothered organising an interpreter, leaving you effectively mute?For a Somalian woman at Christmas Island, this isn’t a hypothetical. This is real life.

On my recent trip to the island I met this woman, wandering around the Construction Camp – where women and families are housed - in a daze, clearly distressed, with no way of talking to authorities and no way of understanding what was happening to her.

Continue reading "Mr Rudd, asylum seekers are real people" »

There’s nothing like the perceived threat of invasion to stir up Australians’ fears.

In many ways, it’s an irrational fear when you consider that historically Australia has been relatively untouched by war or major conflict on home soil and its ocean-swathed borders offer a higher degree of protection unlike land-locked countries such as Afghanistan and many of Africa’s trouble spots.

No, in Australia’s case, it’s not war but the asylum seeker peril that drives our terror of foreign incursion.

Continue reading "Boat people debate has lost no heat from Tampa days" »

Many a battle has been lost because generals were caught fighting the last war in the new one.

Perhaps this goes some way to explaining Labor’s rhetorical bluster on border protection.

In just one interview in Adelaide this week, Kevin Rudd used the terms “tough’’ and “hard-line’’ over and over again and repeatedly declared the Government made ``no apology’’ for its hairy chested approach to boat people.

Continue reading "My name is Kevin Rudd, and I’m just like John Howard" »