Back to the future on offshore detention - Australia's political culture fails the test of leadership
Those with any compassion for the plight of asylum seekers
will be choking on their breakfast cereals, hearing reports of colleagues of Morrison
banging on about bringing asylum seekers to Australia
from Nauru.
The treatment of asylum seekers has been made worse by a constant beating of a
fear drum by the Coalition and a conga line of media supporters that have been
busy maintaining the political wedge on this issue.
Where was the media support for an inquiry into the abuses at the heart of the Pacific Solution? Where was the media (apart from some brave souls in the Fairfax media) when the appalling violations under subsequent reprisals of offshore detention in Manus and Nauru were taking the human rights record of this country into the gutter?
Over the years I have posted many messages on the miscasting of aid to Nauru and
elsewhere under the offshore detention regime and the alarming 'somnambulism'
of the Australian people as these events unfolded. Determined advocates have keep the fires of protest burning.
I have been critical of Australia's
fourth estate for largely failing to expose and condemn successive government’s
approach to human rights. I had hoped the profound negative implications of the
Howard experiment for the health of Australia's body politic would be
the subject of much reflection in the coming years.
Back in the day this blog called repeatedly for a Royal Commission into the
immigration policies and programs of the Howard Govt and subsequent iterations
of offshore detention.
The Rudd government should have investigated this dark chapter. My oft repeated call for such an inquiry to shine a light into the dark recesses of the Pacific Solution pork barrel never eventuated. The chickens meanwhile have come home to roost for Labor.
Labor should have exposed the whole grubby affair to bright
light to put to rest any credibility the Coalition would have on this subject
for at least a decade, and to provide an opportunity for a sensible public
debate on this sensitive area of public policy. Instead they fell into the
wedge and made matters worse for vulnerable souls caught up in the political grind. The Coalition never cared about the welfare
of these people. It was always about political opportunity.
I propose a Royal Commission with Terms of Reference to include, but not be
limited to, an investigation of:
1. Implementation of offshore processing (including the role and use of official aid)
2. Wrongful detention of refugees and permanent residents of Australia
3. Operation and financing of detention facilities on the mainland and offshore
4. Wrongful refoulement of asylum seekers and refugees
5. Influence of Ministers in the determination of immigration decisions
6. Influence of 'understandings' and 'deals' with neighbouring countries on the management of Australia's refugee policies and programs
1. Implementation of offshore processing (including the role and use of official aid)
2. Wrongful detention of refugees and permanent residents of Australia
3. Operation and financing of detention facilities on the mainland and offshore
4. Wrongful refoulement of asylum seekers and refugees
5. Influence of Ministers in the determination of immigration decisions
6. Influence of 'understandings' and 'deals' with neighbouring countries on the management of Australia's refugee policies and programs
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