Merry Christmas and could we do better on the human rights front in 2011?

As this tumultuous year comes to a close I have been pondering the direction of our moral compass when it comes to the human rights of refugees:

. We still see children behind bars because their parents or guardians had the courage & temerity to arrive on our shores unannounced

. Many accepted refugees struggle to find public housing and to get a toe hold on the economic ladder

. Asylum seekers in the twilight limbo of our detention centres are self-harming again out of desperation with a system that grinds painfully slowly and which treats them like criminals

. Trash language such as 'illegals', 'boat people', 'queue jumpers' and the rest of the nasty lexicon continues to pepper our air waves and be bandied about by politicians, shock jocks and right wing pamphleteers so as to press the buttons of the permanently credulous and the pygmy intellects of the lumpen mob

. A promise to reprise the Pacific Solution and to punish refugees with reinstatement of the draconian TPV regime remains a centre piece of the Coalition's policy platform - twin violations of international human rights and refugee instruments

We have moved quite a way from the dark years of the Howard ascendency, which shamed Australia on the human rights front, but the repressive tendencies just beneath the surface of our open democracy are writ large in the report card on refugees and continue to diminish us all.

Asylum seekers and our democracy - Manne, Lake, Burnside, Megalogenis

Four of the nation's leading thinkers on the subject explore the asylum seeker issue (and don't always agree): on the ALP's problems dealing with it; the historical and cultural baggage; and the political difficulties inherent in taking a progressive approach.

Chaired by Dennis Altmann (Director, Institute for Human Security, La Trobe University), the panel consists of: Julian Burnside QC, Barrister and asylum seeker advocate; Marilyn Lake, Professor of History, La Trobe University; George Megalogenis, Senior Journalist, The Australian; Robert Manne, Professor of Politics.

Presented by the Ideas and Society Program, La Trobe University, October 2010.

Click on the link to watch this La Trobe University event on Slow TV.

Asylum seekers in Australia - High Court rules in favour of boat people

In a landmark decision, the High Court has ruled that two asylum seekers were denied "procedural fairness" in the review of their rejected refugee status claims.

The bovver boys and girls are already out, lambasting the Government for 'failing to protect Australia's borders', but everyone with a brain knows the Howard Government excised as much as the country as they could manage - in an alarming Pythonesque parody of power run amok - to undermine procedural fairness; bribed a failed state to be complicit in systematic violation of the rights of asylum seekers on Nauru; and, commissioned the building of the latest gulag on Christmas Island. This all happened on Howard's watch and underlines the dangers to democracy when demagogues seek to sideline the rule of law in favour of executive authority.

David Marr has written an interesting piece on this today, an excerpt of which follows:

"...A decision in favour of the men could halt dozens of deportations and change the fate of thousands of boat people held in camps across Australia. The "excision" system that ships them all through Christmas Island would become redundant. The court might put in doubt every negative finding of the so called "non statutory" Refugee Status Assessment system that has decided the fate of every boat person for a decade.

It's big. Few decisions of the court have been so anxiously and eagerly awaited. All will be clear this morning, but when lawyers gathered in August to argue the case in Canberra, judges on the bench indicated they were ready to make a big call: that boat people cannot be detained and processed outside the law..."

Yes, its big and overdue. Hopefully an opportunity will arise for many of those persecuted under the various mandatory detention regimes to seek recompense through the courts.

Asylum seekers in Australia - Bartlett nails the lie behind refugee hysteria

Andrew Bartlett has penned a piece to expose the nonsense behind the hysteria whipped up in Australia over refugees by our dishonest brood of politicians. An excerpt follows:

"Despite all the significant economic, human rights, environmental, social and security issues which are important in our future relations with our neighbouring countries, the issue of a few thousand asylum seekers coming to Australia by boat each year is the one which is dominating most Australia media coverage of the Prime Minister's current visits around the region.

Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard has finished her first East Asia Summit, had bilateral discussions with the Vietnamese government and has been to Malaysia for discussions there. Indonesia comes next. This transcript of the media conference she gave in Vietnam after the Summit shows that fully half of the questions related to asylum seekers, with most of the other split between the issue of human rights in the region and a local political story in Australia.

The issue also dominated the coverage by ABC radio of the Prime Minister's Malaysian talks, with just a brief mention at the end of the story about the possibility of a Free Trade Agreement. By contrast, this article about the visit from a Malaysian news agency makes no mention of asylum seekers or people smuggling at all, focusing instead on economic opportunities and how this links with tertiary education and training opportunities offered in Australia."

The shameful xenophobia whipped up in the Adelaide Hills recently is typical of the nastiness spawned by Coalition politicians to shore up electoral support. They pander to a dark underbelly, where sub-cultures lurk that frequently find voice through an 'easy racism'. One Nation tapped into this phenomenon and a key legacy of the Howard years sees Coalition politicians exploiting this tendency ruthlessly. Misrepresentation of facts and ethnic stereotyping are the calling cards (or ‘dog whistles’) of ‘culture warriors’ within politics and the media, pandering to the ignorant and misinformed. One fella turned out on the media to tell us the refugees would be more likely to be at risk in the case of bushfire because they could not speak English, despite the fact the asylum seekers are subject to the authority and care of several federal agencies. Perceived threats to security, health services, water, schools are straws in the wind, served up by the self-appointed spokespersons of affected communities to justify their bigotry and fear of the 'other'.

Our 'easy racism' remains our collective shame and makes of us a laughing stock in our region, where refugee issues really bite.

Human rights & the Afghan war debate - an alternative take!

I was casting an eye over this piece in Crikey and thought it was a fairly shallow take on the Afghan war 'debate'. Whatever the strategic rights & wrongs of our engagement this is about the American alliance, pure & simple. If you expected a clear enunciation of geo-political and military strategies from either side of the political divide you were delusional. There is bipartisan support for the alliance and neither party will muster the backbone to challenge US hegemony. So we listen endlessly to that Killcullen chappy telling us about the inner logic of 'counter-insurgency' and, basically, talk amongst ourselves.

The Abbott nonsense about civilisation conflict reprises the twaddle peddled by the neocons justifying the 'war on terror'. Like the 'war on drugs' this war will fail miserably, leaving the situation worse. As one commentator put it recently, you do not buy into the 'messianic' philosophy of al Qaeda and its off-shoots as a counter measure. You counter the message with the rule of law, good governance and community development. You emphasise soft diplomacy and human rights - you do not actively undermine the very things you purport to stand for if you don't want to be seen as hypocritical occupiers and carpet-baggers.

Only a political solution will work in Afghanistan. We are currently supporting a regime that is so corrupt I am reminded of US support for a series of corrupt leaders in South Vietnam as a precursor to defeat in that disastrous war. They ran the country as a personal fiefdom to be plundered by themselves and their client cronies. The Karzai family are doing the same thing. The only way to counter the taliban is through genuine democracy, good governance across all areas of public administration, emphasis on civil society and a fair & equitable distribution of resources. This is not rocket science. The current disproportional division of military and civil assistance of 9:1 needs to be reversed. And we need to stop playing footsies with corruption.

Legitimacy is everything in the struggle for hearts and minds. Can anyone honestly say that Karzai has earnt legitimacy? The taliban support the violent overthrow of his corrupt and thoroughly compromised regime. Meanwhile, he steals elections and is at the peak of a regime that tolerates systematic looting and pilfering of public monies.

When visiting Kenya in 2006, Obama said the following: "Ethnic-based tribal politics has to stop. It is rooted in the bankrupt idea that the goal of politics or business is to funnel as much of the pie as possible to one's family, tribe, or circle with little regard for the public good. It stifles innovation and fractures the fabric of the society...It divides neighbour from neighbour".

This insight could apply equally to Afghanistan. If you can address these issues you have the best hope of counter-insurgency!

Asylum seekers in Australia - children out of detention

In a good first step, the Australian govt has announced changes to the detention regime that will see children released with their carers. Much of the overall approach remains punitive in nature but the ongoing violation of the rights of children was untenable for a western democracy.

Newspapers across the land, including the SMH, has reported the changes positively. However, Amnesty and others have criticised the failure to grasp the nettle and do away with mandatory detention. The AI spokesperson lamented, "As AI has highlighted time and again, Australia is the only country to mandatorily (sic) detain asylum seekers in this way...by reaffirming its commitment to the policy, the government is failing to acknowledge that this system is not working."

As I have proffered previously, Australia must model best practice in this area, ensuring the provisions of international legal instruments and human rights conventions are followed to the letter. This can be a win/win for asylum seekers, the respective processing authorities, and the countries in the firing line. Opening a regional dialogue and developing a well-resourced multilateral approach, empowering all parties with a stake in a solution to this growing human crisis, would be a good start.

Children out of Detention - a campaign renewed

I have received a message that Chilout is reprising its campaign to get and keep children out of immigration detention. Following is part of the message:

ChilOut was a volunteer group campaigning from 2001 to 2006 on behalf of children in immigration detention. They wound down their campaign after the amendment was written into the Migration Act that "Children should be detained as a measure of last resort." At the same time, children were removed from the main immigration detention centres (IDCs) and put out into the community either on bridging visas or residence determinations. The only children held in any form of secure facility - residential housing - were those whose parents were a proven security or flight risk. This was not a radical left agenda. It was done by the Howard government.

The sad fact is that right now 618 children are being held in detention facilities - of the 628 in the immigration detention regime, only 10 are in the community under residence determinations. If you read the very small footnotes in the Immigration department detention statistics summary, you will see that this is the only form of detention where the person does not have to be accompanied at all times by a designated person i.e. under guard going to and from school....

Many children have not left their place of detention in months. While it was laudable that the ALP policy was to remove children from IDCs - the main detention centres - the result has been that kids are now held for long periods in places that do not have anything close to adequate facilities. At least the IDCs were purpose built to house people for long periods and have recreational and educational facilities. Places such as the Darwin Asti Motel are cramped, with only a cement carpark for children to play in. 150 afghan boys held in the Darwin Lodge have not been outside since April. Dr Louise Newman, an adviser to Government on immigration detention issues, has stated that in some cases, detention centres are actually better than the alternatives currently being used for children.

Sadly, ChilOut has had to resume our campaign in light of so many kids being held in immigration detention facilities in unacceptable conditions that are a breach of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. When we ended our first campaign, there was overwhelming support from the Australian community to ensure that children were not being detained. When we closed up shop, members of our group were drained - emotionally, physically and financially.

But there is no way we are going to stand by and watch this happen again. Not in our name, not in our country. No way. We will not allow our government to damage and traumatize another round of vulnerable children who fled to us with arms outstretched, seeking safety and protection.

The first time around we were just simple middle-class mums and dads who thought a couple of letters to the papers would solve the issue. After a 5 year hard-fought struggle we are seasoned campaigners, polished media performers and savvy political operatives. And we are mad as hell that we have to do this all over again.

For more information or to join the campaign, go to www.chilout.org

Did they queue?

Vietnamese asylum seekers

Asylum seekers in Australia - Chris Bowen addresses migration in his new role as Minister

Embrace Australia reports, "in his first major public address as Minister for Immigration & Citizenship, Chris Bowen spoke of the importance of immigration and multiculturalism to Australia “Immigration is central to the fabric of our nation, with around two in five Australians born overseas, or with a parent who was born overseas. I’m one of them. My father’s family – the Bowens – migrated to Australia from Wales in the 1860s to mine coal. My mother came here 100 years later – in the 1960s – as a self-described ‘ten pound tourist’. So I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for Australia’s migration program”

Bowen also advocated Australia adopting a “middle position” on asylum seekers and boat people “we must comply with our refugee convention obligations but that we must have as orderly and fair process as possible, that we must rigorously check claims for asylum – will not be popular with either side of a polarised debate. But it is the only sustainable policy. Sound grabs are presented as simple solutions in this debate. The cheap talk of ‘turning the boats back’ comes easily but doesn’t mean much. Sound policy takes more thought”

Bowen added that a regional processing centre would only succeed within a regional framework “A Regional Protection Framework, in line with United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) principles, and is a mechanism to bring more fairness to the treatment of asylum seekers while removing the incentive for people to undertake dangerous journeys by boat”

Bowen was giving the keynote address at the opening of the Migration 2010 Conference in Sydney.

This all sounds sensible in theory. This blog has argued for a regional framework for years. It worked in the case of the Vietnamese refugees, many of who came by boat. However, in the absence of bipartisanship on this subject every step toward a solution that protects human rights and meets national security imperatives is muddied and trivialised for political gain. Until there is a quantum of maturity and sophistication brought to the contest of ideas on this subject, asylum seekers will continue to be kicked from pillar to post in a tawdry political game.

Did they queue?

Jewish refugees looking for a safe haven in the late 1930s

Asylum seekers in Australia - A Barista with a heart

Every now & then I stumble upon a piece written by someone who gets the agony of being outcast and demonized because you escaped tyranny. It is not an intellectual exercise in legalese or political rhetoric to drum up votes, but a heartfelt plea for decency and a fair go.

I have been banging away on this blog for five years or so in a quixotic way to try to convince a few souls that we have got asylum seeker policy badly wrong; that we have betrayed ourselves by letting our society tolerate a regime of punishment and persecution for people who dare to seek sanctuary on our shores.

I came across this blog post today by a barista! Here's part of what it had to say:

"Truth is no government has ever stopped the boats & the reality is no government can. I don’t know why we can’t extend our hand & help people who are desperate and are at risk, considering this is something we have committed to. We live in country where we haven’t been subjected to these types of experiences & yet we are one of the biggest critics of how people should conduct themselves when they are trying to survive. Who the hell are we to judge to people on how they should go about surviving? Life or death situations generally do not come with a guidebook with instructions on how it should be conducted in an orderly manner. Scared people do desperate things to survive, such as board an unseaworthy vessel & sail across the high seas to a country that isn’t even welcoming of them…"

When are we going to get our mojo back and treat these people as we would want to be treated in their shoes...?

Asylum seekers in Australia - is it legitimate to have punishment of boat people as a centre piece of an election platform?

As you would expect from a political party that reaps returns from its investment of political capital on the demonization of refugees, the Coalition continues its obnoxious rhetoric on boat people. Make no mistake, this is not a reasoned debate on the rights and wrongs of refugee policy. The Coalition has gained rich pickings from fear-mongering, as evidenced by the Queensland vote. The 'tea party' rump of the One Nation party has drifted back to the LNP, in thrall to simple minded messages on debt & deficit, the mining tax and good ole refugee bashing.

Following are some links to people who think and worry about this phenomenon in our body politic:

The refugee myth: How to make things seem worse than they are.


Pacific Solution no real answer.


Simplistic scare tactics will not stop the boats.


While I am no fan of our engagement in Afghanistan, to suggest all young Afghani men should fight the Taliban rather than flee from violence and persecution is reminiscent of those who criticise Holocaust victims of the Nazis for not fighting. A lot of them were young men! Following is an example of this execrable nonsense, fuelling intolerance and hate:

Our boys arrive by bodybag.

Australian media and political bastardry - finally someone (John Menadue) in the know calls for a public enquiry!

A comment on Poll Bludger this morning went like this:

"Deb Cameron on ABC 702 has just had an interview with John Menadue re the bias of the Press during the campaign in which he served it up to the ABC and the rest of the media big time.

The interview will be posted on the ABC website under Mornings on 702 later this morning and she is asking for comments – it is really worth a listen. He is calling for a parliamentary inquiry into the behaviour of the press."

Menadue's earlier critique of the media in Melbourne recently can be found at the Centre for Policy development website.

This is overdue and much needed, before we are picking over the bloodied carcass of our body politic and wondering where we went wrong. The skewed opinion settings of the mainstream media have galled me for a long time. Narrow sectional interests get a helpful leg up in most areas of debate on public policy. We also get a diet of reactionary, simple minded drivel on asylum seekers, deficit financing, interest rates; a plethora of important areas of public policy are 'spun' through the lens of media celebrities who survive on a dumbed-down strategy of sound-bites, 'gotcha' moments and limpid sensationalism. Political analysis has been reduced to talk-show patter and info-tainment for a presumed audience with the concentration span of a distracted gnat.

Well, hey, many of us out here in listener land have maintained a healthy interest in the state of our body politic, and are frankly sick of the 'me me' crowd setting the media agenda. It is time for serious journalists to re-assert themselves. There are plenty of punters that will thank them for it....

Australia votes - the challenge will be to keep the bastards honest - the media I mean!

And so it goes on. The MSM have already launched into a partisan trammeling of the minority government outcome. Willful distortions of independent statements to suggest lack of legitimacy is the current stock in trade of the lumpen commentariat. LP has a good post on this subject.

How can we protect our democracy from the elements of the feral fourth estate that are in hock to reactionary forces in this country? It is a version of the 'howling', where wraiths run riot over the twisting and wailing body politic or a political take of the 'underworld' trilogy (I can feel a movie coming on!). It is sad that so many in the mainstream media have morphed into spruikers for the lumpen mediocrity creeping across the land.

As noted previously, we are at risk of an upsurge of lumpen commentary to assist a tea party type response to this election. Abbott is the type of politician to encourage low rent reaction as it plays to the fear and division game book. Watch the banners as the blooms of bile billow forth from the bowels of the benighted bastions of ole Grubb Street (apologies, apologies, apologies....).

Aid to PNG - Lack of oversight - Australia's awry aid model

I WAS STRUCK by the report in PNG Attitude (No 150, August 2010) on alleged corruption within the aid program.

In 2003 I was lamenting the approach that was fast being adopted by AusAID to devolve administration and program management to Port Moresby. The setting up of sector-based program silos seemed novel at the time, but I had worries about loss of corporate memory in Canberra and, of perhaps more concern, a lack of oversight in contract governance. It seemed to me that full program devolution would bring with it a raft of problems.

One of the scenarios I aired at the time went like this: What happens when one of our large projects in the law and justice sector has a contractual problem involving misuse of funds? Under the previous arrangements, desk officers and contract managers in Canberra would oversight all aspects of a contract. It was sometimes an unwieldy process, particularly if the hands-on managers were inexperienced, but there were checks and balances in the system to minimize the opportunity for ongoing misuse of funds.

Of course,the reality of delivering complex projects on the ground throws up implementation delays, personnel problems, administrative inefficiencies and so on, and it is important to have people in the field to liaise with government counterparts and contractors and to report on these matters. But it is equally important to have a cadre of people back in Canberra who understand the activity, manage the contract and who are hands-on with the Australian managing contractor. You also need highly skilled and independent monitoring and evaluation that can be mobilized as required. Officers in the field are on two year postings. The majority move on to other things on completion of the posting. Whether they are program or contract managers, their corporate memory is limited to their time in country.

Much of the management of the program has been devolved to sector-based units, made up of high-priced consultants, AusAID officers and locally engaged staff, who manage contracts and liaise with government and project personnel. Posted officers and consultants have limited tenure in country and it beggars belief that all the complexities and governance issues associated with delivering large program activities can be managed effectively under this regime. Some of these activities can involve implementation periods of five years and more. Certain activities in the police and corrections area have been implemented over several phases covering 10-15 years or longer.

It comes as no surprise to me that corruption has raised its ugly head in these circumstances.

Two other pieces in Attitude caught my eye. One called upon Australia to scrap the aid program because it is feeding corruption and another focused on the need to get the arrangements between local government and civil society right as a starting point to reform of the PNG political system.

I would conflate these issues so that Australian aid shift focus abruptly to the urgent reform of local level government systems (including the administrative enabling and regulatory framework), decentralization of service delivery and the governance of financial and program administration at all levels of government.

Golly gosh, what a novel idea!

Australia votes - or should it be, 'News Ltd lumpen commentariat and ABC lap dogs decide election!'

Malcolm Fraser nailed this on Q & A last night. The Murdoch press has sought to remove Labor from office by a devious editorial policy that spins most key federal political issues in favour of the Coalition. Malcolm observed Murdoch media is doing the same to Obama and did a job on Labour in the UK. When a few members of the audience giggled at this observation, Fraser asked them why they thought this was funny. He's right, its a tragedy for our democracy.

The relentless banging of the fear drum on refugees, pink batts, BER, debt & deficit, etc etc has seen the lumpen commentariat of the Murdoch press shape public opinion in an unhealthy way. Commercial TV has been a disgrace for a long time as far as balance in political reporting goes. Why Laurie Oakes is considered a serious journalist has escaped me for years. For whatever reason, and I expect corporate business interests and the appeal to the lowest common denominator to chase ratings are largely to blame, commercial TV media favour the Coalition. Abbott has been glad handled by key media personalities and gallery journalists throughout his tenure as Coalition leader.

That leads us to the ABC. The trend in recent times has been for serious current affairs programs to use Murdoch media style approaches to covering political issues. We get the constant crosses to so-called expert commentators, many of whom are so politically biased as to verge on the farcical. There is also the tendency to use the Murdoch media lumpen stalwarts as guest commentators. Fran Kelly regularly seeks the views of Denis Shanahan (gulp!), one of the most compromised of the lumpen players in the gallery. News 24 constantly relies on right wing commentary to 'fill' the analysis pieces. ABC Insiders often has Murdoch 'info-tainers' masquerading as journalists, sprouting an endless indictment of Labor and glad handling the Coalition. The serious journalists spend most of the program counter-balancing the paid advertising of these 'spruikers'.

The latest glaring example of skewed coverage is the reporting on the 2PP position on vote counting. Of course, the Murdoch press has spun this relentlessly in favour of the Coalition. Sadly, the ABC has fallen in to the same biased cesspit, thereby poorly serving the public. Antony Green has exposed the nonsense at the heart of this mindless chicanery. There must come a stage when it is questionable whether the ABC is meeting its charter to deliver fair, objective coverage of political affairs. I have seen little evidence of it in recent times.Poll Bludger has a good post on this issue today. As one comment on this post put it, "The media still doing their best to undermine democracy. Maybe from now on we should just let them decide for us seeing as they think they know better. Sad state of affairs." It seems our media is in a race to the bottom ...poor fella my country!

Australia Votes - open letter to GetUp

Dear GetUp

As I emailed you earlier, much as I appreciate a lot of your advocacy work, your idealistic glad handling of everything Green was indulgent frippery with potentially dire consequences! As the Greens never have to contemplate Govt it is easy to pitch to all their soft-left friendly policies. In their lovely paradigm all these areas would be addressed as per the Green agenda, but our body politic is beset with serious problems….

The worst side of Australia came to the fore in this election campaign. Media driven hate mongering, sexism, 'dumbing' down of political debate, the endless round of media grabs on petty nothings.

We are ill-served by today's media. It is driving a 'me me' celebrity culture that enables a rank opportunist like Abbott to run for the highest office on a platform of unbridled entitlement politics, encouraging division, selfishness and 'get out of my way' pitches to people who think Government is about nothing more than serving their narrow interests. Labor had to tip toe through an electoral mine field of electors easily in thrall to hate mongering, which has become an acceptable political tool when you have little else to convince the electorate you are fit for government.

The shabby state of our body politic is alarming. It is in these circumstances that extremist politics flourish. I am amazed that we have sunk so low yet again and so quickly. Public intellectuals and serious journalists need to ask themselves how this happened. It is a canker and nothing good will come of it......please get real when you try to influence voters. GetUp preached a soft left line relentlessly, playing into the hands of the far right. The naivety of your strategy is there for all to see. Yes, the soft left vote swung to the Greens, but how does this help the cause of progressive politics when you enable a reactionary fear monger like Abbott to crow about his electoral success?

The hemorrhaging of Labor’s primary vote to the Greens will be a major factor if Abbott is elected. Trust me - you will have to re-set your progress meter to negative in some key areas of human rights and social justice under this scenario. Are memories of Howard so short?

Abbott's macho, pseudo religiosity and manic physical self-flagellation clearly appeals to many of the 'me me journalists' and the crypto-Hansonite set but it makes my skin crawl. What does it say about the psychological health of a country that goes within a whisk of electing a major political party that had as the centerpiece of its electoral pitch the punishment of a few miserable refugees? It beggars belief that in the 21st century our body politic can be so trivialized.

As I indicated earlier in another email (also not replied to) politics is not a zero sum game...and I'm afraid Getup has been played in the extreme right's game plan. When you split the progressive vote in this country the right fills the vacuum and thus you get the Queensland result.....

Australia Votes - MSM, Greens & GetUp enable Abbott to contemplate his new 'pacific ' solution

Ironic as it may seem, the combination of a heavily biased MSM, including the ABC, and the hemorrhaging of Labor's primary vote to the greens and in response to campaigning by groups such as GetUp, has almost delivered Government to the most thuggish, reactionary politician this country has produced in recent decades. He will return to the Pacific solution, he will scrap the NBN, he will revisit unfair work practices, he will implement a harsh regime to make those on welfare suffer.

Queensland has reverted to type, attracted to Abbott's Hansonite agenda. Parts of Western Sydney have been equally in thrall to the hate messages.

The debt and deficit fear drum has also been beaten relentlessly, with the acquiescence of a lemming like media train that has played a huge role in determining the outcome of the election.

GetUp preached a soft left line relentlessly, playing into the hands of the far right. The naivety of their strategy is there for all to see. Yes, the soft left vote swung to the greens, but how does this help the cause of progressive politics when you enable a reactionary fear monger like Abbott to crow about his electoral success?

I was afraid this would happen. The body politic will change as a result of this election. I am fearful that the tendencies in the Australian electorate that saw Howard elected four times on the back of fear politics have been lurking under the surface, awaiting to re-emerge and further traduce the human rights record of this country.

Abbott's macho, pseudo religiosity and manic physical self-flagellation might appeal to some of the 'me me journalists' (Annabell, oh Annabel) but it makes my skin crawl. What does it say about the psychological health of a country that goes within a whisk of electing a major political party that had as the centerpiece of its electoral pitch the punishment of a few miserable refugees? It beggars belief that in the 21st century our body politic can be so trivialized. Can I suggest a few ‘journalists’ might benefit from a stint in the wilderness to re-discover their bearings and don't forget your flagellation tool!

By direct intent or by default, a large number of Australians have opted for a return to fear and division. They say you get the politicians you deserve. What does that tell us about the maturity of our emerging national consciousness? We are on the verge of becoming the soft rump of the reactionary 'tea party' set that is turning politics in the US very ugly. It will not be much prettier here if Abbott takes the reins.

As I've said repeatedly on this blog, be careful what you wish for!!

Australia Votes - political commentary traduces our Democracy - open letter to the ABC

Dear ABC

In your attempt to provide 'balance' in your political reporting you have unleashed a bunch of narrow minded 'me me ' generation 'reporters' on to the political commentary stage, most of whom think they're the news. Apart from some notable exceptions, the commentary from the likes of Trioli, Crabb (who just can't get enough of Abbott unplugged - yuk!), Kelly, Uhlman, etc etc has been tortuous.

The so-called 'expert' commentary has been equally vacuous. After the Labor launch last Monday poor Joe fielded two right wing usual suspects to assess the launch. In the manner of Trioli, they both looked like they had eaten a shit sandwich every time Julia Gillard was mentioned. This is frankly not good enough.

It is bad enough that the Murdoch press have adopted an editorial line that traduces our democracy, but I expect a lot more from the ABC. The other day even the World Today fell into the trap. Eleanor Hall, whom I do admire, had Kennett on as an 'expert' on health policy. Spare me, Kennett can be called many things but an 'expert' on health policy he ain't.

And much as I have admired Red Kes over the years he has of late taken on some of the attributes of the 'me me' crowd - in other words, get out of my way because I'm the story! It is rank and it does our body politic a disservice.

If Abbott is elected on Saturday the ABC will have had a substantial hand in this outcome through mediocre analysis and mind-boggling glad-handling. And please, please don't ever let Tony Eastley go wandering off into the never never again. He may have had a rural epiphany but it was excruciating as political analysis!

Abbott wants to slide into govt on the back of more bribes to Nauru

Deja vu, we've seen it all before. A policy bankrupt party expecting to win electoral favour by ramping up its rhetoric on asylum seekers. Howard & Reith offered bribes to Pres Rene of Nauru to get the Pacific Solution up & running. Now, Abbott & Morrison are doing the same nasty two step shuffle.

I was ringside as the Howard fiasco played out. Public servants were threatened with career damaging outcomes if the Nauru 'program' went off the rails.

There should have been a full judicial inquiry into the governance and human rights abuses that underlay this strategy to ensure it could not happen again. I lobbied Senator Evans to this effect and got the standard she'll be right mate response from his department. Wrong, wrong, wrong.....Click here to read an account by a Doctor familiar with Nauru to appreciate one aspect of why the Pacific Solution was a disgrace.

Susan Metcalfe has written a book on the Pacific Solution that will be launched in Melbourne on 17 August. I encourage people with an interest in this benighted area of asylum seeker governance to read her book.

Human rights set to go to hell in a handbasket in Abbott's Australia

After a lengthy lay off due to travel and major surgery I have re-emerged to find Australia on the brink of electing a man who would re-introduce the 'Pacific Solution' for asylum seekers.

The dog whistle has worked again. Supported by the mainstream media, Abbott's ugly message has filtered through TV sets yet again; into the consciousness of average Australians who lack the critical skills to see through the ugliness of the strategy. Intelligent people, who would consider themselves decent and fair minded, are seriously contemplating electing a man who lost his moral compass a long time ago. He dresses his so-called conviction politics in a false religiosity, but his pitch to credulous people, who think a few people arriving by leaky boats is a threat to this country, is nasty in the extreme.

His extremist views on welfare, migration, women's rights, industrial relations will take this country backwards again. We lost valuable time in our march toward realizing a progressive and moderate body politic under Howard, evincing nothing more than lackey status to a regime now considered one of the most reactionary and incompetent in US history. Abbott is more extremist than Howard in many respects. Howard's asylum seeker policies brought shame to this country. We are now on the verge of revisiting these and worse.

The worst side of Australia has come to the fore in this election campaign. Media driven hate mongering, sexism, 'dumbing' down of political debate, the endless round of media grabs on petty nothings. We are ill-served by today's media. It is driving a 'me me' celebrity culture that enables an inadequate opportunist like Abbott to run for the highest office on a platform of unbridled entitlement politics, encouraging division, selfishness and 'get out of my way' pitches to people who think Government is about nothing more than serving their narrow interests.

The shabby state of our body politic is alarming. It is in these circumstances that extremist politics flourish. I am amazed that we have sunk so low yet again and so quickly. Public intellectuals and serious journalists need to ask themselves how this happened. It is a canker and nothing good will come of it......

Asylum seekers in Australia: PM Gillard has a chance to show some statesmanship

The PM is about to announce 'changes' to asylum seeker policy. She has asked for an open debate and for the name calling to stop on both sides of the argument. On the face of it, Gillard appears to want to try to take the partisan politics out of the refugee debate.

A worst case scenario would be a pandering to the fear whipped up by Abbott and his fellow travelers, who see political opportunity in pandering to fears of 'boat people' harbored by many in the community. Howard turned this into an art form.

It seems to me that Gillard has an opportunity to present the facts on refugees and seek to conjure a return to bi-partisanship on immigration and refugee policy. Of course that won't happen while the extreme right has control of the Liberal Party, but it is a sound message for the broader populace. Fear politics has no part to play in immigration. It smacks of xenophobic and entitlement politics, which has become a stock in trade of the right wing in Coalition circles. However, there is a rump of labor support drawn to these drum beats as well.

It is time to show true leadership and chart a course that is both practical and humane.

Julian Burnside has a piece worth reading in Tuesday's Age.

Get Riz's Story on Air & send Tony Abbott a message

Click here to see GetUp"s new TV ad featuring Riz, to take his story to all Australians.

Methinks Abbott may have bitten off more than he can chew with Riz and his tale.

Open letter to the Minerals Council of Australia

Dear Mitch

Congratulations on your incredibly obtuse response to the RSPT. Your TV commercials are so effective I now change channels as soon as I see that chap pretending to be a concerned player and I am far from being Robinson Crusoe. This will ginger reform of your industry faster than anything the Federal Government does.

Reform of this sector’s tax regime is overdue. The replacement of a royalties regime by a super profits tax is the most efficient way of doing this. By all means argue about the transition arrangements and other structural issues, but by politicizing the Federal Government’s policy response you may have done this industry a disservice.

You can now be assured that every Federal agency and regularity authority with any interest in this industry will be charged to make a forensic analysis of your membership’s operations and financial dealings. I imagine there are some slightly nervous directors out there who had better have their houses in pristine order. You may even see calls for a review of the way mining leases are managed in this country.

I suggest you make the launch of this type of partisan political campaign at your peril. You have now got the complete attention of everyone with a brain that believes this tax reform is necessary.

Probably this is a good thing as it would be excellent to think Australian mining demonstrates world’s best practice in terms of corporate governance and global mining operations.

Good luck with that…

ABC Insiders give Abbott another free kick

My message to ABC's Insiders today:

"Congratulations on today's political cabaret. Every position adopted by your panel was anti-Rudd. My god, he must be a dreadful person. He obviously does'nt tickle the journos fancy enough. Swearing off-line, golly gosh. Fraser, Hawke & Keating were such paragons of virtue in that area & 'life's a box of chocolates'. My only disappointment is that Hawke & Keating are'nt around to let you lot know a few home truths about your shoddy journalism in 'appropriate' language.

Please, please stop being a paid commercial for Abbott and bastardy inc. and do some cerebral analysis. Your take on the mining tax politics is breathtaking in its superficiality. And, Iemma dudded by Rudd! Keating would have got a giggle out of that. He kicked people from within and without the bastions of the NSW right as a bloodsport.

I for one am happy that Iemma might have got some comeuppance - he certainly dished plenty out. Why are'nt you focused on the backstabbing of Tripodi et al?

The only snippet of Petro's timely valedictory you showed was the joke about Playboy, rather than his take on human rights violations.

Nudge, nudge, wink wink, let's go get a latte and think of more ways to give Abbott our endorsement. If that @#$%^&* becomes PM you lot can take a long look at yourselves because the MSM will have had a huge hand in it, won't they Lenore? (& bonuses all round)...."

Abbott morphs back into Howard & finally reveals his true colours on asylum seekers

It has been obvious to anyone that takes any notice of these matters that the Coalition lost its moral compass on the question of the human rights of refugees early in Howard's stewardship.

In a breathtaking leap back to the future Abbott and Morrison have announced today that TPVs and the Pacific Solution are to be dusted off. Forget about dog whistles, the loudhailer is out again, reminding us of Tampa and the fallout.

The Age reports "Mr Abbott said his party would find unnamed countries to process Australia-bound asylum seekers, as it did when under the dismantled Pacific Solution.

Asylum seekers were detained on Nauru and Manus Island.

As leader, Mr Turnbull upset moderates by announcing without consultation the Coalition would introduce temporary protection visas.

Both measures were described by Liberal MP Petro Georgiou as "cruel" and "regressive"."

It worked a treat for Howard. It will be interesting to see whether the body politic has matured somewhat since those depth plumbing times.

Asylum-seeker clamp breaches treaties: human rights violated by base politics

As preempted in this blog, Labor's recent toughening of its stance towards asylum seekers from Sri Lanka and Afghanistan breaches international treaties.

Michael Gordon, writing in the Age, reports

" THE federal government has breached three international treaties and may have broken its own domestic laws by suspending the processing of asylum seekers from Sri Lanka and Afghanistan, according to an opinion prepared by three Melbourne lawyers.

It says the dramatic toughening of border protection policy discriminates on the basis of race and country of origin, in contravention of Australia's international obligations.

Prepared for the Human Rights Law Resource Centre, the opinion will be sent today to community and advocacy groups that have expressed alarm at the policy.

At least one, the Refugee and Immigration Legal Centre, is considering a challenge to the legality of the suspensions after launching a High Court challenge to the government's off shore processing regime this month."

GetUp gets back on track - the miners can stretch the truth but they can't scare us - one for the truth challenged Mr Abbott!

Contact GetUp if you wan't to beat them at their own game, by putting this huge parody ad right alongside theirs in the papers, starting with The Australian this Thursday.

We know Abbott mislaid the truth a long time ago and just can't seem to find it!

Human rights in Australia - a warning for those attacking Labor - be careful what you wish for!

I sent the following message to GetUp today. I have been a staunch critic of Rudd's back downs on human rights issues, but I have no doubt that the alternative under Abbott would be much worse:

"Whilst I applaud most of what GetUp does I am now very concerned that the relentless attack on Labor from the left and the right will realize an Abbott government. Believe me, if that happens the previous Howard regime will seem positively benign!

I agree that better ways need to be found to tackle criminality on the internet, but please temper your attack on this government’s credentials. The MSM have poured so much vitriol on Rudd that Abbott now looks like he could take office. I think Brett Solomon and Simon Sheik are articulate advocates for human rights, but an Abbott government will present such an avalanche of violations as to make this current campaign on the internet filter appear tokenistic.

As Abbott goes about the business of whipping up fear of asylum seekers, with his appalling bus, nasty rhetoric and his conga line of supporters in the MSM, the Rudd Government has desperately tried to avoid being wedged on the issue. The chest beating and hard lines that emerge from week to week indicate an abiding level of fear in the community of people arriving on these shores.

An irrational debate on population has arisen in the body politic, which threatens to turn decidedly partisan and ugly. In the absence of support for the Coalition's policy platform Abbott has taken the 'Tampa' option of cranking up the fear rhetoric; a confection of outrage towards, and threatened consequences for, desperate people who have made a dangerous voyage to escape persecution.

The 'population' posture being trotted out by Morrison and Abbott is back to the future of fear and smear; an egregious throwback to 'White Australia' thinking, much like Howard demonized Muslims to build populist support for his border control regime.

Bi-partisanship on such an important issue as immigration, population growth and cultural inclusiveness is impossible whilst a major political party sees populist opportunity in scaring people.

So we will not get a human rights charter any time soon, as the right paint this as a watering down of a government's right to do as it pleases, with nasty consequences for those caught on the wrong side of what political leaders decree makes a good Australian.

The population debate as framed by Abbott and his cohort is a rallying call for those in the community in thrall to notions of exclusivity, cultural entitlement and border protection. Faced with fairly ordinary polls, Abbott is doing what Howard and Turnbull did before him - press the 'alert and alarmed' buttons on boat people, cultural diversity and 'Australianess'. We have seen it all before - the 'reds under the beds' mantra of the 50s has been replaced with 'we will decide who comes to this country', and many credulous people fall for it, hook, line and sinker, as it feeds into their prejudices...

You are hammering Labor on its ETS back down; its asylum seeker policies; its internet filter - but you are letting Abbott off the hook! The wedges set up under the political dynamic in the Senate are electoral poison for Labor. With good intentions but political naivete, you are contributing to an MSM media construct of a government that is under-performing and lacking courage.

Howard took this country far to the right! Rudd has to tip toe through an electoral mine field of electors easily in thrall to hate mongering, which has become an acceptable political tool when you have little else to convince the electorate you are fit for government. It reminds me sometimes of an obscure party grabbing public attention in the beer halls of Munich in the 1920s. They banged a few fear drums too!

Whilst rightly criticizing Rudd’s back peddling on human rights issues, be aware that the alternative would be much worse! Australia would become a much uglier place under Abbott’s stewardship. His brand of socio-religious patriarchy would determine public policy parameters in such way as to make the previous 'brutupia' look positively benign.

Politics is not a zero sum game…."

Debunking Myths About Refugees and Asylum Seekers, but the Coalition sails on ...

Click here to have the myths well and truly debunked. Great job guys!

It seems the 'Abbottomater' has received a boost in the latest Newspoll. I suspect this is an outlier or more News Limited propaganda. Crikey, anyone would think that Rupert does'nt like Kev with the amount of nasty vitriol hurled at him by the Murdoch MSM. Its a pity our political journos rarely rise to the occasion and think for themselves. It seems they don't appreciate Kev's seeming disdain for their profession, but is it any wonder, given the feckless and arrogant lot they mainly are. What a bunch of lemmings! Even the ABC crowd is in thrall to the nonsense peddled by Abbott's motley crew, whether the subject is climate change, refugees or the deficit. Some of the stuff dished up on ABC local radio makes my skin crawl.

As a group, the MSM political hacks are way too impressed with themselves. Many think they are the news, but, frankly, most would'nt have the nous to develop public policy. They thrive on sound bites, simple minded takes on serious matters, and scuttle about waiting for a politician to make a gaffe. Its very tedious and little wonder the average punter prefers the footy!

Abbott beats the refugee fear drum louder & louder - human rights will be the loser under a future Coalition govt!

Those of us that hoped the election of a Rudd Government would see Australia model best practice in the treatment of refugees, particularly as we take so few on an annual basis, are now alert and alarmed.

As Abbott goes about the business of whipping up fear of asylum seekers, with his appalling bus, nasty rhetoric and his conga line of supporters in the MSM, the Rudd Government has desperately tried to avoid being wedged on the issue. The chest beating and hard lines that emerge from week to week indicate an abiding level of fear in the community of people arriving on these shores. Recent polling suggests many in the electorate remain fearful of refugees that arrive by boat.

An irrational debate on population has arisen in the body politic, which threatens to turn decidedly partisan and ugly. In the absence of support for the Coalition's policy platform Abbott has taken the 'Tampa' option of cranking up the fear rhetoric; a confection of outrage towards, and threatened consequences for, desperate people who have made a dangerous voyage to escape persecution.

The 'population' posture being trotted out by Morrison and Abbott is back to the future of fear and smear; an egregious throwback to 'White Australia' thinking, much like Howard demonized Muslims to build populist support for his border control regime.

Where is the baby bonus thinking now? I thought the whole point of the Costello pantomime on having babies for mum, dad and the country was to have a bigger Australia! Yes, ladies & gentleman, you guessed it - it does'nt suit the current fear posture so lets not talk about previous policies.

Bi-partisanship on such an important issue as immigration, population growth and cultural inclusiveness is impossible whilst a major political party sees populist opportunity in scaring people.

So we will not get a human rights charter any time soon, as the right paint this as a watering down of a government's right to do as it pleases, with nasty consequences for those caught on the wrong side of what political leaders decree makes a good Australian.

The population debate as framed by Abbott and his cohort is a rallying call for those in the community in thrall to notions of exclusivity, cultural entitlement and border protection. Faced with fairly ordinary polls, Abbott is doing what Howard and Turnbull did before him - press the 'alert and alarmed' buttons on boat people, cultural diversity and 'Australianess'. We have seen it all before - the 'reds under the beds' mantra of the 50s has been replaced with 'we will decide who comes to this country', and many credulous people fall for it, hook, line and sinker, as it feeds into their prejudices...

I'm not the only one who gets the Abbott 'thing' about migration:

Read this Crikey article.

I also get Mike Carlton's take on Australia, the shonky country - right up Mr Abbott's alley, (if you know what I mean).

ABC radioland in Canberra - a divergent commentary but a human rights issue none the less!

I have sent the following feedback to ABC 666 Canberra Radio this morning. Of course, it is an exercise in futility as it seems their current stable of presenters are seen as the best thing since sliced white bread. No wonder I don't like sliced white bread.

I was struck by how enjoyable local Canberra ABC radio was when the current incumbents took a much 'deserved' holiday during the kiddies break:

"I must comment on the discernible improvement I noticed on Breakfast and Mornings during the school holiday break. Your usual presenter, Solly & his 'boofhead' style talk back must have sent listeners scurrying to RN in droves in recent times. His peculiarly West Australian approach to public broadcasting is not endearing to listeners with a reasonable IQ & a grasp of current affairs.

The Sloane style of cloying giggling, particularly when she comes across a line of thought she doesn't particularly agree with is an unfortunate radio tic. I appreciate her regular guests are all people she is 'comfortable' with, so we tend to get good ole Harold's take on making money in media, the daily Murdoch spin on politics or non-political takes on feral animals, local history and whatever. Whenever the subject is current political issues the take on it is invariably 'rural conservative' in slant, which is a very limited world view (giggle, giggle). More RN....By the way, Alex, 'going forward' is gen x corporate speak, not something invented by the PM. However, I do agree it is the most redundant phrase in modern blah blah...

Afternoons is taken up with pure country 'fare' with mind-numbing discussions on everything under the sun that might have occupied my mum's CWA club, if they were all suddenly given a new lease as gen X'ers and aging Y's May be there is a discernible demographic, but I suggest baby boomer and younger listeners might appreciate something a little more challenging on the cerebral front. The quaint panels that pop up on this show, trying to be oh so clever on somewhat inane subjects are pretty tedious. Sadly, RN tends to wander off into book readings and what not during this slot so local ABC is all that is left.

You can see that I am a radio addict, and I enjoy pithy and astute commentary, lively interviews and objective current affairs analysis. I don't enjoy commercial radio style projections of the personal predilections of radio presenters who try to shape their broadcasts around their narrow take on reality - like the Solly's and Sloane's of 'radioland'. Don't we have enough of this sort of obtuse editorializing on commercial talk back?"

Refugees in Australia: UN ‘troubled’ by Australia’s treatment of asylum-seekers - Rudd does a 'Howard' on boat people!

The United Nations said Monday it was "deeply troubled" by Australia's treatment of asylum-seekers, as rights group Amnesty International condemned the reopening of a remote detention centre.

Amnesty's media release follows:

"Amnesty International has condemned the Australian government’s suspension of the processing of new asylum claims by Afghan and Sri Lankan nationals, labelling it an appalling act of political point scoring, and fundamentally inconsistent with Australia’s international obligations under the 1951 UN Refugee Convention.

The organisation, which has repeatedly called on the government to show leadership on asylum and refugee issues, said the move smacks of opportunistic politics ahead of this year’s expected Federal election. Amnesty International is gravely concerned that this move will result in the arbitrary detention of people who have genuine protection claims.

“This decision is outrageous. Sadly, it appears that the government has caved into political pressure and is now attempting to override the rights of the most vulnerable to score political points,” said Andrew Beswick, Campaigns Manager for Amnesty International Australia. “People fleeing persecution should not be used as political footballs”.

The decision to suspend processing the claims of Afghan and Sri Lankan asylum seekers pre-empts the UNHCR’s official review of the security situation on the ground in either of those countries.

“This will compromise Australia’s international reputation as a leader in the region,” said Andrew Beswick.

Amnesty International calls upon the Australian Government to release the information on which it has based its claim that the security conditions in Afghanistan and Sri Lanka have improved to such an extent as to justify this sudden blanket suspension.

“The government’s rationale for this apparently unilateral decision conflicts with the information Amnesty International and other human rights organisations have received regarding the situation on the ground for many people in Afghanistan and Sri Lanka,” said Andrew Beswick.

Amnesty International believes the Australian Government’s move sends a dangerous message throughout the Asia Pacific region. The possibility exists that as a result of this decision, other governments within the region could begin to pressure UNHCR to cease processing of Afghan and Sri Lankan nationals in countries such as Malaysia and Indonesia.

The Australian Government has a rigorous process of assessing asylum claims according to the internationally agreed criteria set out in the 1951 Refugee Convention. Under that process, individuals who are found to be at risk of torture, persecution or death, are offered our protection. Those people who are not found to have genuine claims are returned to their country of origin. As Australia is a signatory to the Refugee Convention, that process should stand.

Well over 90 per cent of asylum seekers who arrive by boat are found to have genuine protection claims. This means the overwhelming majority of Afghans and Sri Lankans seeking asylum in Australia have largely been found to have genuine claims for protection. This statistic demands that the Australian Government further explain a blanket ban on these two groups.

Situations for many groups in Sri Lanka, including activists, journalists and some Tamils remain tenuous and dangerous. Similarly in Afghanistan, many individuals, in particular activists and journalists, have fled real threats from the Taliban or government-associated warlords, while women, single heads of households, unaccompanied minors, victims of trauma, people requiring medical attention and people with disabilities are at significant risk.

“There is no justification for the Australian Government’s application of a blanket suspension of the assessment of asylum claims from Afghan and Sri Lankan nationals,” said Andrew Beswick.

Amnesty International will be investigating whether the move also puts Australia in breach of its obligations under the 1965 Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination."

Amnesty International is calling on the Ministers for Foreign Affairs and Immigration and Citizenship to:

* Reverse their decision to suspend the processing of new asylum applications by Sri Lankan and Afghan nationals.

* Respect the rights of all refugees and asylum seekers regardless of where they come from.

* Stop over-riding the rights of the world’s most vulnerable people for political purposes.

You can take action by clicking here.

Getup has a campaign underway to tackle the Rudd Government on its backsliding path toward human rights violations. I did'nt expect to see this from Labor but it is happening and my worst fears are being realized. Click here to hear Riz's powerful story.

Refugees in Australia: Labor falls into the trap of playing the fear game with the Coalition.

The Age reports "ALL asylum seekers arriving from Sri Lanka and Afghanistan will go into limbo for three to six months under a dramatic toughening of Australia's border protection policies aimed at curbing the boats.

Sri Lankans will not be processed for at least three months while Afghans will face a wait of at least six months, as the government flagged that people from these countries will face a much tougher battle for entry.

Immigration Minister Chris Evans said the shift coincided with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees reviewing its guidelines.

But Opposition Leader Tony Abbott branded yesterday's move an ''election fix'' that would not stop the boats.

The policy reversal, which jettisons Labor's election pledge to process arrivals quickly, was announced yesterday by Senator Evans, Foreign Minister Stephen Smith and Home Affairs Minister Brendan O'Connor."

Rudd et al have been moving toward a more hard line approach to 'boat people' as Abbott and his bandwagon ramped up the political invective on asylum seekers. In the absence of support for the Coalition's policy platform Abbott will take the Tampa option of cranking up the fear rhetoric; a confection of outrage towards, and threatened consequences for, desperate people who have made a dangerous voyage to escape persecution.

Human rights advocates will take action to test the legality of the Govt's posture. I suggest it contravenes the convention on refugees and other international instruments designed to protect human rights. It probably also contravenes Australian law, which protects individuals from government action taken on the grounds of ethnicity, nationality, religion etc.

I recently parted company with the ALP. This action confirms my decision in spades. We are again witnessing political leaders lose their moral compass over asylum seeking.

Refugees in Australia - the fear drum gets louder as the election gets closer!

As predicted multiple times on this blog the fear drum is being hammered louder and louder as the days roll on toward a federal election. Every day members of Abbott's fear spruikers gang, both from within the Coalition and the MSM pamphleteer set, come out and hammer Labor on the 'failure' of its border protection policies.

That peculiar program, ABC Insiders, had Ackermann beating the drum this morning, apologizing for the Brisbane based Sunday Mail's front page firing up fear that 'boat people' are in the community, shopping at your shops - be afraid, be very afraid!

Why that nasty piece of work, Ackermann, gets a regular slot on a show that purports to showcase the views of serious political journalists defeats me. He is nothing more than a Murdoch press funded propaganda stooge of the Liberal party. His pronouncements on refugees, or "these people" (as he so subtlety puts it), should be examined by federal authorities as I'm sure they amount to vilification and hate mongering.

Mind you, he is in such bad company, with mainstream Coalition politicians doing the same dirty work routinely to whip up political support. Pyne's outing on Ch 10's Meet the Press this morning being a case in point. It goes on and on and it seems that hate mongering has become an acceptable political tool when you have little else to convince the electorate you are fit for government. It reminds me sometimes of an obscure party grabbing public attention in the beer halls of Munich in the 1920s. They banged a few fear drums too! May be the best thing is to laugh at these pathetic loons and sympathize with their obvious challenges!

Refugees in Australia: the idiocy of the 'boat people' scare campaign nailed.

This post from Pollytics nails the lie that is the fear campaign waged by Abbott and his merry band of drongos as they try to whip up support for their draconian approach to refugees.


In 2008, there were approximately 15.2 million forcibly displaced refugees around the world. The blue square in the corner is the proportion that tried to reach Australia by boat.


"In 2008, France, the UK and Italy combined had 96,870 applications for asylum submitted.

In 2008, 51 industrialised countries participating in the UNHCR statistics program had 382,670 applications for asylum submitted.

In 2008, there were approximately 827,000 asylum applications submitted across the globe

In 2008, there were approximately 15.2 million forcibly displaced refugees around the world.

Yesterday we had SBY address our Parliament – the leader of a country of 230 million people, heading a democratic government that struggles with serious economic and social development issues everyday. He was here to talk about development cooperation, security and intelligence sharing and international economic partnership in the forums of global power to boost living standards and enhance the social and economic ties between our two nations.

What did we bang on about?

Boat people."

Great post Possum....

Australian Federal politics - ABC Insiders does it again on the simple minded front - predicts one term for Labor!

I sent the following comment to Fran Kelly, who has written Labor off as a one term government on Insiders this morning. I don't know how David Marr et al cope with the mediocrity served up by some of these so-called 'insiders' and God knows what Fran is sniffing but it must be strong!

"I have been concerned about the shallowness of the political analysis served up by this show (Breakfast on Radio National) for some time, and I'm far from being Robinson Crusoe. While Michelle Grattan is always good value, your host is pretty limited on the subject. Her performance on Insiders this morning was woeful.

I don't think the worst of the pamphleteers masquerading as journalists among the Murdoch commentariat would proffer the prediction that Labor is looking like a one term government, although surely it is one of their wet dreams. Perhaps you need to read some of the better psephology and political blogs to get a handle on the polls. The Poll Bludger on Crikey tells us "The latest fortnightly Morgan face-to-face poll has Labor’s two-party lead at 57.5-42.5, up from 56.5-43.5 last time. Labor are up a point to 47 per cent on the primary vote, while the Coalition are down one to 37 per cent." If you continue to rely solely on the dodgy polling of Newspoll, the current figures still have Labor increasing their seats at the next election. I find Essential Report more cogent in its methodology and they have a ten point gap on the 2pp.

Abbott's Murdoch Press driven honeymoon (if that's what it is) will be relatively short lived, once the electorate work out what a truly despicable individual he is. His recent comments on homelessness should be enough to make even the most shallow of radio commentators blanch. But we keep hearing about what a straight talking, lycra-wearing good 'ole boy he really is and he's 'taking it up to the government'. Frankly, this guy is about control and shaping our body politic, with the help of his ilk of alpha male,with the result that Australia would become a much uglier place under his stewardship. His brand of socio-religious patriarchy would determine social policy parameters in such way as to make the previous 'brutupia' look positively benign.

Take the case of refugees. It seems the default position of the Coalition under the influence of Howard (and now Abbott) is to bang the fear and loathing drum at every opportunity. Bi-partisanship on such an important issue as migration and cultural inclusiveness is impossible whilst a major political party sees populist opportunity in scaring people. It is no accident that Hanson's erstwhile mentor, David Oldfield, used to work for Abbott. How did one commentator with a memory longer than yesterday's thought bubble put it? - Abbott is BA Santamaria's terminator sent from the past. Be afraid, be very afraid! And good 'ole Barnaby Joyce sings straight from the good 'ole League of Rights hymn book. Whilst keeping a concerted blow torch to Labor on key areas of social justice, where it is currently sadly wanting, it would be encouraging if political commentary on the ABC was to rise a little above the tawdry attacks on Labor coming from the Murdoch MSM and to do some serious analysis...Good luck with that!"

Human rights in Australia - Leader of the opposition Abbott signals new 'brutopia'.

Anyone following Australian politics could not have missed Tony Abbott's take on homelessness. Larvatus Prodeo has updated us:

" I was in Canberra last week and had the opportunity to ask Opposition Leader Tony Abbott whether a government under his direction would continue with the Rudd government’s goal of halving homelessness by 2020. His answer was no.

In justifying his stance, Abbott quoted from the Gospel of Matthew: ”The poor will always be with us,” he said, and referred to the fact there is little a government can do for people who choose to be homeless."

While Senator George Brandis tells us Abbott "believes in a settled, rooted society of families and citizens living in stable communities bound together by the gossamer threads of voluntary association", it might be more apt to consider "there might be as Brutopian a streak in communitarian conservatism as anything to be found in Kevin Rudd’s portrait of neo-liberalism."

Frankly, if Abbott is a communitarian then Josef Stalin was just a misunderstood libertarian. This guy is about control by his type of alpha male and Australia would become a much uglier place under his stewardship. His brand of socio-religious patriarchy would determine social policy parameters. Be afraid, very afraid....

Human rights in Australia - An Open Letter to Federal Labor

I have been a proud supporter of the ALP since 1972. I think the Rudd government is doing a great job responding to the GFC, but the current drift away from social equity as a guiding principle for public policy will see rusted on Labor supporters like me drift away from the party. At the time of the ACT school closures I wrote to the party about the risks of allowing econometrics to underpin public policy directions. You end up with outcomes skewed against the least advantaged. In the short term, it might appeal to yuppie ‘wannabees’ who sell their vote to the highest bidder, who distrust all governments, and who think public policy should be all about raising their disposable incomes, but you will alienate your base over the longer term, during a period when the right will be circling the wagons. The sudden spike in funds pouring into Coalition coffers should sound the warning.

It is clear Federal Labor is pitching to the so-called ‘aspirant’ mob in marginal seats who measure everything through the prism of ‘what is in it for me’, but it is a too cynical for me and I no longer want to be associated with the party. I expect Labor to stand for social justice and human rights and I’m afraid the drift away from these core values is corrosive and disillusioning. It is not just about being good managers of the economy, which I believe Labor is achieving with great aplomb. For example, the ABC 4 corners last night on the plight of carers for disabled in our society should make public policy makers hang their heads in collective shame! The Minister’s performance was weak and uninspiring.

Another great concern to me is the Deputy PM's strategy on school performance. The American school system is inferior in every way to our own, and that includes the NY paradigm. If you want to adapt lessons from successful countries look at the Finnish system. It is clear that the way to get improvements is through initiatives that genuinely support professional development, decent remuneration and other incentives, smaller class sizes and strategic mentoring of classroom teachers by the brightest and best of the teaching profession. Forget the corporate ‘Darwinism’ of the Americans. Facilitating comparative school performance information for public consumption is one of the most egregious scenarios I can contemplate.

A further example is Labor’s cynical approach to the indexation of APS and ADF retiree super pensions. From my perspective this is a broken undertaking with dire consequences for many families. Again, I detect a narrow econometric approach at work that fails to factor the cost-benefit of retirees under less economic duress, their contribution to voluntary social work and the downstream economic benefits of increased expenditure on goods and services and GST from their improved incomes. Get a grip...

Human rights in Australia - social darwinism raises its ugly head in 'my schools' website fiasco

Back in August 2009 I wrote the following to the Labor party on the apparent obsession of the Deputy PM with an American model of school performance management. Following is part of what I wrote:

"The American school system is inferior in every way to our own, and that includes the NY paradigm. If you want to adapt lessons from successful countries look at the Finnish system. It is clear that the way to get improvements is through initiatives that genuinely support professional development, decent remuneration and other incentives, smaller class sizes and strategic mentoring of classroom teachers by the brightest and best of the teaching profession. Forget the corporate ‘Darwinism’ of the Americans. Facilitating comparative school performance information for public consumption is one of the most egregious scenarios I can contemplate. Don't do it!"

Now, we have the 'my schools' website launched with glee by Julia Gillard. It is an unmitigated disgrace that will deepen social divisions in our society. The stigmatization of poor performing schools, the trumpet blowing by 'selective' schools, the idiotic lumping together of schools that have very little in common apart from some econometric number that exists in a parallel reality to real life. The unexpected negative consequences of this type of ham-fisted statistical measurement are too many to log here.

An article in today's SMH online 'National Times' is well worth a read. Here is part of what Jane Caro and Chris Bonnor have to say:

"So, if, as Gillard advises, there are any lazy teachers needing a kick up the proverbial, don't look for them in a government school. Clearly if the website is correct and government schools are, on average, outperforming many of their fee-charging equivalents, then government school teachers must be working very hard indeed, against the odds. They not only teach more students, they are given vastly less support to do so.

The urgent question is: how long can they maintain this performance in the face of such skewed staffing handicaps?

Some may point out that it may be private resources that are going into paying for this extra staffing in non-government schools, but that still raises the question of why we continue to generously publicly subsidize such well-endowed schools when so many government schools are doing it tough. Private funding drives divides between schools the world over but, as the My School website so tellingly points out, should it be the role of government to continue adding fuel through its funding policies?"

It will come as no surprise that the great majority of schools in Finland - one of the best performing countries in terms of education outcomes - are public funded. The public-private divide in Australia is harmful in terms of achieving social cohesion, particularly as so many private schools underpin an ethos of selective entitlement and economic elitism. The consequences of this type of education can be seen in the divisive and inequitable policies oft peddled by the graduates of such institutions.

For me, it beggars belief that the ALP has facilitated this social 'darwinist' clap-trap and it reflects poorly on its architects.

Human rights in Australia - Australian of the Year gets it right on mandatory detention

It was encouraging to hear the new Australian of the year, Prof McGorry, say "immigration detention centres were factories for producing mental illness and mental disorder''.

They are and it is about time the ALP stopped pandering to right wing fear mongering on this subject and enabled Australia to meet its international refugee and human rights obligations.

Today's Essential Report has Labor slipping in the area of national security. The silly season produces some daft polling numbers and 2009-10 has been no exception. Add to this a relentless campaign by Abbott and the right wing media to beat the border security drum, and it is likely those members of the permanently credulous, in thrall to these distorted fear messages, will respond by getting behind Abbott and his fellow bandwagoners.

Howard tapped in to the credulity of many Australians with devastating effect. I know as I was one of the benighted public servants dragged into managing his Pacific Solution. The Murdoch press bang the ‘border security’ drum relentlessly, and commercial TV stations like CH7 profile people from ‘mysterious’ places on shows like ‘Border Security’. So, you get a woman wearing a hijab looking suspicious as her bag is searched by a customs officer! Never mind that the great bulk of nasty substance smuggling into this country is orchestrated by home-grown villains.

The numbers of refugees arriving by boats is minuscule compared with the experience of many European countries. It is a sad reflection on the state of our body politic and lack of self-assuredness that the fear messages gain traction but there it is.

Racism in Australia - Leader of the Opposition (Tony Abbott) reveals his true colours

After a bit of a lay off the latest tawdry attempt by Abbott to create a wedge on 'culture' and 'citizenship' has got my blogging goat up in arms. True to form (it was only a matter of time) Abbott has thrown away the dog whistle in favour of the megaphone.

On the eve of Australia Day he has sounded a call to arms for those in the community in thrall to notions of exclusivity, cultural entitlement and border protection. Faced with fairly ordinary polls, Abbott is doing what Howard and Turnbull did before him - press the 'alert and alarmed' buttons on boat people, cultural diversity and 'Australianess'. We have seen it all before - the 'reds under the beds' mantra of the 50s has been replaced with 'we will decide who comes to this country'. It would be laughable if it was'nt so ugly, with nasty consequences for those caught on the wrong side of what Abbott decrees makes a good Australian.

Following is a little of what he had to say in Melbourne on Friday, as reported by Alexander Kirk on the ABC:

"TONY ABBOTT: To the extent that it is, a celebration of our nation, Australia Day is necessarily a salute to an immigrant culture. What's curious then is the ambivalence that many Australians feel about immigration, even though it's so central to our national experience.

ALEXANDRA KIRK: Tony Abbott invoked his former leader John Howard's famous 2001 utterance to argue the need for a tough approach to boat arrivals.

TONY ABBOTT: John Howard's declaration about Australians controlling who comes to his country resonated because it struck most people as self-evidently and robustly true.

ALEXANDRA KIRK: He accepts Australia's obligation to help people fearing for their lives.

TONY ABBOTT: But this has to be balanced against our obligation not to become a soft touch for everyone seeking a better life.

ALEXANDRA KIRK: The Opposition Leader has issued a challenge to those who argue Australia's a big country that can easily accommodate the asylum seekers who've come by boat.

TONY ABBOTT: The critics of border protection policy need to ask themselves, at what point would the size of any unauthorised influx become a concern. They further need to explain why it's better to wait for the problem to become worse before tackling it. A strong border protection policy is perfectly consistent with a large and inclusive immigration policy and in fact it's probably essential if the public is to be convinced that Australia's immigration policy is run by the Government rather than by people smugglers."

It seems the default position of the Coalition under the influence of Howard et al is to bang the fear and loathing drum at every opportunity. Bi-partisanship on such an important issue as immigration and cultural inclusiveness is impossible whilst a major political party sees populist opportunity in scaring people.

We can expect more of this nasty nonsense from Abbott as electoral defeat stares him in the face. Frankly, his ilk, extremist bully boys, need to be flushed regularly from the clearing chamber of mainstream politics, or, at the very least, confined to a narrow well-lit down-pipe that is frequently decontaminated.

I recall Abbott was a dab hand with a megaphone outside Fisher Library during our shared days at Sydney University. He was peddling a nasty message back then as well. How did a commentator in the know describe him the other day? I think it was something like 'B A Santamaria's terminator sent from the past' to whip us into shape. I think the Liberal Party would be wise to heed the ancient wisdom - be very careful what you wish for...and watch out for all those nasty migrant gangs (nudge, nudge, wink, wink), you know what I mean!