There are two competing realities when it comes to the Australian government’s approach towards asylum seekers — or more correctly, a real world and a fantasy world.
In the real world, Australia has a trivial problem with maritime asylum seeker arrivals, especially compared to European countries that see asylum seekers and illegal immigrants arriving in boats in numbers many multiples of what Australia receives.
In the real world, the numbers of asylum seekers arriving by boat in Australia fell significantly through 2010 and has continued to fall this year, not because of all the tough talk from Julia Gillard, but because the factors causing people to flee persecution have shifted the flow of refugees away from our region and towards Europe. This will almost certainly be reversed in the future, as it has in the past, not because of domestic policy reasons but because war and regime change elsewhere are factors beyond our control, except when we start the wars ourselves, as we did in Iraq and Afghanistan.
And in the real world, nearly all voters rank the treatment of asylum seekers very low on the list of issues that are important in how they vote.
In the fantasy world of Australian politics, politicians are obsessed with demonstrating their ability to stop the boats and their ferocity in deterring asylum seekers, because they think whole elections are won or lost on the issue. And in doing so, Labor is permanently dooming itself to losing the issue, because it can never compete with the Coalition in being tough on refugees. In effect, it has allowed John Howard c.2001 to frame the asylum seeker debate and the rules of engagement on the issue ever since, making no effort to try to fight the battle on different ground.
There are elements of the Malaysian agreement — if and when it is finalised — that are positive. The increase in our overall humanitarian intake is a positive step and should be receiving more support than it has. And there is sense in avoiding anything that creates perverse incentives, as Temporary Protection Visas did, that risk human life. But Labor’s rush to announce the deal, its apparent double standard on countries it believes appropriate to send asylum seekers to, and its continuing signalling to the community that asylum seekers merit some form of punishment suggests a desperate government that will do anything simply to be free of an issue that it appears to have lost the capacity to deal with rationally.
Yes it has taken a heroic level of moral and political cowardice to manage to set Tony Abbot on an anthill of higher moral ground, even for a moment. Yet Bowen, in his obsession with sending messages to people smugglers via children, has managed it.
Slight quibble: I think Gillard/Rudd had Howard on the ropes about this a few years back. But they – and their department DIAC – are still dancing in the shadow of Pauline Hanson and the polls. They buckled.
It is the polls that must be turned around, not the boats, and that can only be done with political courage, facts and a clear commitment to “Australian ideals”. And those notions, no matter who defines em, do not run to doing this to kids.
This appalling situation could prove a turning point, if they have any courage left. It can’t get much lower.
So Peter, if the government ceased negotiations on the “Malaysian solution”, disbanded mandatory detention and allowed all comers to settle in the community while awaiting a decision on refugee status (once health and safety checks were carried out), then that would fix everything, would it? I don’t think so.
The fact remains that unlike you and me, the vast majority of the Australian population are totally against these measures – thanks in large part to those idiots in the coalition. You are correct in suggesting that education on this issue, to change attitudes, is desparately needed. The only problem with changing attitudes is that to be successful it requires a long period of time – possibly a generation – which the current government does not have. Hence the “quick fix” alternatives, which are diabolical.
So long as we do not have a bi-partisan approach to asylum seekers it will be virtually impossible to gain majority acceptance in this country. There should be much more examination and comment in the MSM on what the coalition policy is. But all anyone out there is concerned about is to “stop the boats”.
And to the Greens and their fellow travellers I say, be careful what you wish for. While you are out there demonising the Labor government, just wait until the coalition is back in power. Their actions will make the current policies look like a Sunday school picnic. Whatever it takes, is their motto.
CML,
For kids, yes to all the above suggestions.
Mandatory detention is not used in Britain – nasty old rinsoed Britain has got 430,000 of them running about wild in the streets.
Yes it will take time. But it also takes a start, not just bending over. Education, argument, getting a few more faces attached to the issue, hopefully not a lot more kids at funerals… all that. Gillard should a appoint a Garnaut for Asylum seekers.
And nothing – nothing will “stop the boats” … save for an outbreak of world peace and humanity in our region. We could possibly do a bit by not starting anything else up.
There is no bipartisan policy possible on this. There wasn’t a consensus on VietNam either. In 1970, 70% of voters supported the war. Sometimes you just have to do the right thing. Even voters respect people who do that.
I don’t have to demonise the Labor Government, they are doing that all on their own.
Of course we haven’t mentioned the mendacity of the Murdoch press in all of this. And without having a bucket handy, how could we even begin to speak of this malignant force for spreading fear and misinformation to an already easily mislead population?
It’s said we get the government we deserve, but what in god’s name did we do to have this vile tripe spread a metre deep all over the country? A tiny trickle of desperates have been vilified, mistreated and imprisoned in some pretty unsavoury places to allay a perception that the government might be seen to be “weak on border security”, as if these boats were somehow nuclear warships.
And the government intends to up the ante and shuffle a batch off to an even more unsavoury place to deter others coming by boat? What are they afraid of?
Oh, that’s right, the Murdoch press. Who else?
17 refugees arrived by sea per day last year. 7 per day have arrived this year. Everyone of them has a good and compelling claim to asylum yet Bowen wants to break another law to help cover up all the other laws broken.
Under Rudd and Evans we had moved towards some decency and attempts to uphold the law, even the Merak could initially be explained because it was clear that boat would have sunk in stormy seas and all would have drowned – not that we would have cared.
I have sent this letter to most MP’s in this country, please add any other laws you can think of that have been broken.
Under Australian law in the case of NAGV and NAGW of 2005 in the High court it was deemed to be illegal to deny the right of people to make a refugee claim because DIAC decided they could go to another country, the court found that if that was legal then not one person would be able to claim asylum anywhere in the world. Under Article 32 of the refugee convention it is illegal to turn people away at our borders.
What Gillard is doing is breaking the law in a number of ways to pretend that the voluntary humanitarian program has legal status and seeking asylum does not except if you fly here.
25,000 asylum seekers have flown here since 2005, half are not owed our protection under the refugee convention but we do not hear Gillard stand in front of the world and claim they have to be cherry picked to be sent to some other country – the law for asylum seekers is that they apply in signatory countries.
11,000 have salied here, over 90% will be found to be owed protection but the government have broken the law by:
1. Jailing them all in arbitrary detention is spite of new rules saying they wouldn’t.
2. Jailing them outside the law, something the full 7-0 members of the high court said was illegal.
3. Illegally suspending claims for Afghans and Sri Lankans by claiming in advance that their cases would be denied. Records now show that 99.7% of Afghans were then accepted last year and 88% of Sri Lankans.
4. 1300 accepted refugees were kept illegally detained while ASIO pretended they were doing security checks that were and are not legally required.
5. A couple of thousand children have been jailed indefinitely even though the law changed in 2005 to prevent them being jailed.
Rather than admit they had been breaking the law on a large scale and illegally treating innocent human beings, Gillard decides to make some appalling deal where 800 random people who ask for our help will be illegally exiled to a nation that whips, canes, tortures and cages people – Gillard is simply trying to avoid legal obligations and punish people who need help.
Many thought Gillard would be good as our first woman PM but she is also the first to send bullets after refugees and make an idiotic speech claiming that all refugees had to stay home and die.
On May 13 there were 272 Afghan kids, 280 Iranian kids, 99 Sri lankan kids, 110 Iraq kids, 87 Vietnamese kids and 190 kids from varied other nations in our prisons still in spite of Bowen saying they would be out.
And not one journo challenges Bowens lunatic prattling about people smugglers business models as he proclaims illegal punishment of the passengers. He does not know the law and has never bothered to find out the law.
QUESTION TAKEN ON NOTICE
SUPPLEMENTARY BUDGET ESTIMATES HEARING: 19 OCTOBER 2010
IMMIGRATION AND CITIZENSHIP PORTFOLIO
(62) Program 3.1: Border Management
Senator Cash (L&CA 59) asked:
What accounts have been provided by IMAs regarding representations made to them
by people smugglers regarding the likelihood of their obtaining permanent residency
or citizenship in Australia?
Answer:
The Department does not specifically capture and collate data regarding
representations made to irregular maritime arrivals (IMAs) by people smugglers
about the prospects of obtaining permanent residence or citizenship in Australia.
However, based on the comments gathered from the entry interviews of 5209 IMAs
in the 2009-10 financial year, 85 (or approximately 1.6%) IMAs claimed their people
smuggler provided country information about Australia, such as:
• Australia would accept them as refugees;
• the person would be able to live in Australia permanently;
• Australia is a safe and humanitarian country, free of discrimination.
Of those 85 IMAs however, only six specifically claimed their people smuggler told
them they would get residency or citizenship in Australia
So Bowen would be punishing 800 random innocent people because 6 out of 5209 people were told that they could get residency in Australia.
And the worthless media swallow the tripe whole.
And Christopher, you are right about the Murdoch rags, they have been an absolute disgrace but so have the press council and Media Watch who let almost all of the lies go through to the keeper even when presented with evidence that they are spinning lies.