Pacific Solution

Tony Abbott is a beautiful boy. His straight hair, perfect eyes, ears and nose. No, I am not talking about the Opposition Leader but the 3.47kg baby boy in Nauru who now bears his name.

Tony Abbott meets… Tony Abbott. Photo: Brad Hunter

On the way into Nauru Hospital on Sunday June 12, Nauru Foreign Minister Dr Kieren Keke warned Mr Abbott that he should watch out if a child was born while he was in the maternity unit.

Nauru mothers often name their babies after the first person they see, he explained, and there are plenty of Nauruans named after celebrities. “You might have a few questions to answer,” Dr Keke said with a laugh.

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  • PeterA says:

    01:53pm | 18/02/12

    Dear oh dear TimB, given the reporter’s track record and the mere fact she was in tow with Mister Abbott should be a big enough hint, even for someone like you. Read more »

  • RyaN says:

    10:10pm | 26/06/11

    @DY: what no reply, are you not outraged? Read more »

 

Clear the waffle and you find the Government and the Opposition now have a bipartisan position on dealing with asylum seekers who arrive by boat.

The implicit message in both the government and the opposition's policies

It’s quite simple: Put them in the closest to squalor we dare endorse, and hope that the nastiness of the accommodation deters other refugee hopefuls.

And it is an unmistakable message: Our Hell hole could be worse than the Hell hole you are now living in. Or at least, it might not be worth the risk and expense of setting out by boat to find out.

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  • Alice Coleman says:

    06:53am | 21/07/11

    I think Deeman makes a good point. Most of our ancestors had to move to wherever we live at some point. Refugees is a sad and difficult topic, no matter what your stance is or how you look at it. I hope that they can figure out reasonable solutions to… Read more »

  • kris parent in phoenix love hispanics, despise lib says:

    03:51pm | 17/05/11

    Are U guys getting the same speech too about refugees and immigrants….here in Arizona we here give me your tired and poor speech from crazy people too….they turn it all around and take the entire Constitution to INCLUDE pretty much anything incl the Earth…. seems to be a bigger Eugenics… Read more »

 

Nauru has the greatest airline in the world. It’s called Our Airline. The leased-from-Taiwan 737-300 looks a little dated, not having those upturned wing tips which denote a modern plane, but the smiles of the Nauruan flight attendants are warm and welcoming.

Welcome to Nauru. Photo: Rob MacColl

There are plenty of spare seats (flying in and flying out) and they offer long-flight sedation in the form of brimming plastic cups of red wine. One of the flight attendants even has her own baby on board, a homey touch.

This airline used to be called Air Nauru. Then, in 2005, the last of its more contemporary 737-400 series jets was repossessed as the country fell into a heap. Clearly, the older plane’s navigational equipment is up to scratch. You’d need it to find this pin-drop island in the middle of the night.

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  • jack says:

    04:04am | 27/10/10

    Heard they are going to put somalis up there. Read more »

  • Lin says:

    04:55pm | 15/08/10

    Reading some of the cases and decisions made me think that it’s a script for a sitcom… it would be comical if it wasn’t real. Why are we giving tax money to some ‘tribunal’ to overturn decisions made by tax funded public servants?? And all they base it on is… Read more »

 

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’.

An asylum seeker being moved around Christmas Island. Photo: Colin Murty

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.

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  • Eye4anEye says:

    12:26pm | 15/06/10

    “Yes it is complex, and Eye4an Eye, I challenge you to meet and talk with some real Australians of refugee background in your community. However, it is my long experience over 30 years that rusted on negative attitudes towards refugees and suntanned immigrants and those who do not speak English… Read more »

  • Lin says:

    12:41am | 12/06/10

    Uli, excellent article, I like the following parts too, although they talk more generally about migration of diverse ethnic groups: “Unrestricted migration would harm Australia’s national interests in ways documented by scholars in economics, sociology and related disciplines. Much of the harm is predictable from what is known about the… Read more »

 

The Pacific Solution has been replaced by the Indian Ocean non-solution.

One of the boats intercepted off Ashmore Reef in September

In the ABC documentary The Howard Years those responsible for the Pacific Solution said that the mandatory detention camps they inherited from Labor were almost bursting, due to the influx of boats.

We face the same situation with the Christmas Island Detention Centre rapidly filling up as the boats keep coming.

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  • rooney says:

    10:13pm | 24/05/11

    im from the future! we still have the ame problem Read more »

  • Jason says:

    03:31pm | 13/11/09

    Amazing - nobody is saying we shouldn’t take genuine refugees.  Just don’t accept queue jumpers.  If Australia collapsed into a civil war (or say, the greens got into power), it’s the “fat cats” who would be the boat people choosing their destination and leaving the poor “working class” back in… Read more »

 

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