tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-119063962024-03-14T02:13:19.793+11:00Seeking Asylum Down UnderA view of Australia's detention of asylum seekers and a search for an antidote to the dictum "might makes right"Alteregowunderbandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18329114155068414378noreply@blogger.comBlogger999125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11906396.post-28941871818779569192018-11-21T13:01:00.003+11:002018-11-21T15:15:46.794+11:00<span style="font-size: x-large;">Why is the dog whistle successful in Australia?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">This is how it goes. </span></span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Many people are outraged when non-white migrants struggle to feel
welcome here, and especially when a few disturbed young people choose a violent, radicalized
response.</span></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">The boot is put into asylum seekers, refugees, Muslims and any other soft targets of a good dog
whistle. </span></span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Our leader morphs as he
passes from one bunch of electors to another, desperately seeking legitimacy,
and failing that, a semblance of a legacy beyond ‘stopping boats', offshore gulags,
Muslim baiting, climate change denial, Aboriginal marginalization and Sudanese vilification. Good luck,
g'day, where the bloody hell are you? Those that have tracked the dog whistle politics of the LNP know they routinely stir the racist underbelly of the body politic when they
are under pressure.<br />
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In recent times who better to start the ball rolling than that bastion of
fairness, Peter Dutton? They know their market when it comes to the race
whistle. It has worked miracles for them in the past. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">We have been subject to a radical reactionary agenda that has taken
Australia away from the political middle ground. Many of the media hacks don't
understand that a large percentage of Australians have finally seen
through the LNP extreme agenda, despite the lazy work of the hacks on the subject,
and they don't like what they see. Morrison tries to hide his real self, but just a casual survey of changes wrought on the LNP
watch reveal an ongoing determination to 'Americanize' our society and economy. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">I believe profoundly that much else besides
the relative utility of human beings as units of production matters if
you want to strengthen community and the social underpinnings of the
body politic. I'm afraid the 'insider' hacks spend too much time around
the political makers and shakers; they have largely lost sight of what matters. Human rights considerations have dropped off the
radar of politicians and their pamphleteers embedded in the 'LNP zone'. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Despite a shifting backdrop of many white
Australians having gone through a dark night of the soul
and admitting they may have been part of the problem, and of small 'l' Liberals across
the land fleeing the LNP war camp as it lines up one weak, marginal
group after another for being un-Australian and in need of 're-training' in our
ways, the racial attacks of Dutton and Morrison on Muslims everywhere and Sudanese
migrants in Melbourne, one of the most vulnerable groups to ever seek shelter here, continue to scrape a well-scraped barrel.</span></span><br />
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Beneath the obvious default responses to people with different cultures arriving uninvited, lurk guilt complexes in the Australian psyche over treatment of
Aboriginal people that surface in strange ways. Many of our fellow citizens and
their forebears have built their fortunes on the backs of generations of 'black fella' misery and misfortune. They seem to have developed a racial
psychosis to protect their sensitive souls from having to front up to what they
and these forebears have done to the first Australians. <br /> </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">It is an ironic aspect of this phenomenon that quite a few of the most
rabid proponents of 'white Australia'
have a mixed race dynamic in the family cupboard. <br /> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">This is my message to those drawn to the dog whistle:</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">It is about time this country faced up to the dispossession and cultural
genocide perpetrated by forebears on indigenous people. <br />
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Part of this construct should see Australia become a welcoming safe
haven for all people fleeing oppression on racial, ethnicity and religious
grounds. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">That dark night of the soul and the
manifest fear of the 'dark’ other will only be more broadly mitigated by a reconciliation
that sets this country on a course to undo the damage of the past. </span></span></div>
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Alteregowunderbandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18329114155068414378noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11906396.post-20022762115321564472018-11-13T13:51:00.002+11:002018-11-13T22:25:07.378+11:00<h2 class="post-title entry-title" itemprop="name">
<a href="https://seekingasylumdownunder2.blogspot.com/2007/12/new-matilda-aid-with-strings-attached.html">Asylum seekers & Nauru- "Aid: With Strings Attached"</a>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Regular readers of this blog will know that Tampa and the Pacific
Solution were the catalyst for my discursive rantings on Australia's human
rights record over the last decades. <br /><br />Over the years I have posted on the miscasting of aid to Nauru and elsewhere under corrosive asylum seeker policies
and the alarming 'somnambulism' of the Australian people as these events
unfolded. I have been critical of Australia's fourth estate for
largely failing to expose and condemn Howard's approach to human rights.
The profound negative implications of the Howard experiment and its lengthy aftermath for the
health of Australia's body politic will be the subject of much
reflection in coming years.<br /><br />Writing in New Matilda in 2007, <a href="http://www.newmatilda.com/home/articledetailmagazine.asp?ArticleID=2657&HomepageID=231">Nic MacLellan u</a>nderscored
the tawdry misuse of official aid under the Pacific Solution and the
downstream implications of the strategy, which was made up on the run by
bureaucrats trying to engineer good outcomes from bad motives. He
quoted my published condemnation of aid to Nauru as "‘an unmitigated
bribe’ to ensure the Pacific Solution continued". The public sector
reform 'conditionality' that evolved was a half-baked and largely
punitive response to Nauru's failed economy, wages crisis, decrepit
infrastructure, growing civil unrest and the potential impact this
instability could have on the management of the island. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDury8AHZHdm5O392Vkx7dUrkLz6G7Ufx2BU8RdUAqutfslQUWzewYeUCrGh0Ah5tMHjcLXqTksSDcZSgPxmKTrq8DJm8X_QO7hU8L8Uhz3CHspxa60UOf4Um4vI26l9D82X0aBg/s1600-h/aid+katauskase3Yl15Nbb71y.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5147354557278256690" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDury8AHZHdm5O392Vkx7dUrkLz6G7Ufx2BU8RdUAqutfslQUWzewYeUCrGh0Ah5tMHjcLXqTksSDcZSgPxmKTrq8DJm8X_QO7hU8L8Uhz3CHspxa60UOf4Um4vI26l9D82X0aBg/s400/aid+katauskase3Yl15Nbb71y.jpg" style="cursor: hand; cursor: pointer; display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center;" /></a> <br /> </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Australia bullied, bribed and coerced its way to the current situation. The challenge
remains to help Nauru avoid total failure as a state by salvaging its
limited resource base sufficiently to sustain its small population into
the future. We must commit ourselves to a genuine long term development
partnership. The next Australian government must discard the cynical, mercenary gambit to
compensate Nauru for hosting our offshore detention facilities and put the bilateral relationship on a proper footing.<br /><br />It is
necessary for the next government to investigate this dark chapter. I
hope my oft repeated call for an inquiry (preferably a Royal Commission) to shine a light into the dark
recesses of the Pacific Solution and the bad governance it spawned will be realized.
</span></span>Alteregowunderbandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18329114155068414378noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11906396.post-44075462439831392672018-10-30T11:07:00.001+11:002018-10-30T11:12:56.052+11:00Seeking Asylum Down Under: Did they queue?<h2>
<a href="https://seekingasylumdownunder2.blogspot.com/2005/05/did-they-queue_26.html?spref=bl"></a></h2>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgt9hGZdQnm8OJV1fuT8BNsRyMiSss0LSEHIbDy0P_gC8v-vNXJJqycv5cCY3NqyqaVhq8YKptwyvbX1RSNR0s650N5rjmeDvwpFzuo0GTLWiSeR4daJmaxwFL2y1JMNvJ9a5i6GA/s1600/Jewish+refugees.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="310" data-original-width="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgt9hGZdQnm8OJV1fuT8BNsRyMiSss0LSEHIbDy0P_gC8v-vNXJJqycv5cCY3NqyqaVhq8YKptwyvbX1RSNR0s650N5rjmeDvwpFzuo0GTLWiSeR4daJmaxwFL2y1JMNvJ9a5i6GA/s1600/Jewish+refugees.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"> Jewish refugees looking for a safe haven in the late 1930s</span></div>
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<br />Alteregowunderbandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18329114155068414378noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11906396.post-21944059128662342552018-10-27T11:22:00.000+11:002018-10-27T11:22:30.878+11:00<h2>
<span style="font-size: large;">Back to the future on Nauru -- 2005 and what's changed?</span></h2>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhkaUoMtBPB-SdTGPuoCghL0DJ6SXhcgIaD-ZjVtNnWTsN5bonR6AfGXtHZEMnFCpjA8uOt9_r0NmsuLSy8XpJ3KtlAZ4lFmiF0YCUfy887g7-kPKRF-tbOIF4I8YpQwoN16J9qw/s1600/nauru.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhkaUoMtBPB-SdTGPuoCghL0DJ6SXhcgIaD-ZjVtNnWTsN5bonR6AfGXtHZEMnFCpjA8uOt9_r0NmsuLSy8XpJ3KtlAZ4lFmiF0YCUfy887g7-kPKRF-tbOIF4I8YpQwoN16J9qw/s320/nauru.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">"My interest in asylum seeker issues gathered pace as Director of the aid
program put in place to leverage Nauru’s part in the policy to keep
boat people outside Australia’s immigration zone, otherwise known as the
‘pacific solution’ (a term attracting growing infamy). <br /><br />From a
paltry few scholarships per annum, post Tampa the Australian taxpayers
have been footing a huge bill to keep Nauru on side. Nauru is a failed
state. It was a failed state prior to the AusAID and DIMIA funding that
forms the ongoing ‘bribe’ to keep the detention camps open on Nauru.
The plight of asylum seekers detained on this benighted speck of guano
continues in our name, paid for by our taxes.</span></h2>
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<br /><span style="font-size: large;"><br />Prominent refugee
advocate, Julian Burnside QC, reminded Australians of the grave
implications of these actions on Nauru The Age (27 March 2005):<br /><br />"Julian
Burnside QC said it was not an offence to arrive in Australia without a
visa and ask for asylum. Yet the government was locking up asylum
seekers and their children without charge for years, ostensibly to send a
message to people smugglers, he said.<br /><br />"None of these people have
committed an offence, so by definition we've got innocent people held
in jail for three years plus," Mr Burnside told the Ten Network's Meet
The Press program."We're jailing innocent human beings and we're jailing
them in order to send a message to other people. Now the mistreatment
of innocent human beings to mould the behaviour of others is seriously
bad conduct and it's conduct which most people would not approve of.”<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">"It's the sort of thing that hostage takers do. It's the sort of thing that terrorists do."</span><br /><br />Mr
Burnside said the message seemed to have got through to the people
smugglers, with no new arrivals recently. “From now on, the cruelty
seems to be quite pointless," he said. "We know that the people who are
held in immigration detention have not committed any offence. Quite
frankly, if they had committed an offence, do you think that any court
would sentence children to three years imprisonment for coming along
with their parents without a visa? Of course they wouldn't. It is not an
offence to arrive in Australia without a visa and ask for asylum."<br /><br />Mr Burnside said the only place the laws could be tested would be in the International Criminal Court.<span style="font-weight: bold;">"But
more importantly I think this has got to be exposed in the court of
public opinion," he said. "What we're doing to innocent asylum seekers
fails every test of democratic principle."</span></span></h2>
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Alteregowunderbandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18329114155068414378noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11906396.post-87741854408278248562018-10-19T11:19:00.000+11:002018-10-19T13:53:06.258+11:00<h3 class="post-title entry-title" itemprop="name">
<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://seekingasylumdownunder2.blogspot.com/2012/08/back-to-future-on-boat-people.html">Back to the future on offshore detention - Australia's political culture fails the test of leadership</a> Part 2</span></h3>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br />The meanness of spirit behind the base politics of punishing asylum seekers is finally starting to percolate through to the broader electorate. For a long time I could barely bring myself to look at and listen to the horror of our treatment of asylum seekers.<br /><br /> I once worked for a government that sold its soul to a devil. Our enthusiastic complicity in an illegal war, our rank hypocrisy in hectoring other countries about human rights, and our systematic violation of the rights of refugees was more than I could stomach; I withdrew gradually my services and then myself from the professional world I had inhabited for nigh twenty years. <br /><br /> I found myself in a fog of depression that threatened to destroy my life. Everywhere I looked I saw Islamophobia, sanguine apathy in the face of abject cruelty to our fellow human beings, bureaucratic solutions to human suffering. People I knew well were sprouting the poisonous stuff of ethnic demonization and the mindless slogans of hate and intolerance.<br /><br /> I set myself on a path of healing but I am constantly set back by the reality of hate politics; the mindless characterization of people on the basis of religion and/or ethnicity. <br /><br /> I kept thinking of two people I admired, and who had seen me through earlier difficult times, when a good friend was all that stood between me and dangerous depression. One of these great friends was a colleague who died in the Jog Jakarta air disaster; the other was a citizen of Iran who I met at University in India and who was unwilling to return home to a repressive regime. Both of these wonderful human beings were/are great humanists with a zest for life. Oh yes, and they were/are Muslims...<br /><br /> Morrison’s pseudo religiosity and hail fellow well met shtick 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 elects a political party that had as the centrepiece 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 trivialised. <br /><br /> The dog whistling politics of the Coalition has come back to bite it on the bum. <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/national/morrison-sees-votes-in-antimuslim-strategy-20110216-1awmo.html">It is about time the sunshine was let in on this grubby corner of the extreme right's campaign to hold office on the back of fear and division.</a> It's a Coalition speciality of course and those out there peddling this racial vilification stuff are doing its bidding.<br /><br /> <a href="http://blogs.crikey.com.au/purepoison/2011/02/15/scott-morrison-defending-your-taxpayer-dollars-from-dead-refugee-children-and-their-national-bank-breaking-funerals/comment-page-1/#comment-45447">The anti-Islam campaign has been festering within the bowels of the Coalition for a long time now…Morrison is seeking to hold office</a> 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 has 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.</span></span><br />
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Alteregowunderbandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18329114155068414378noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11906396.post-53700784406355652262018-10-16T10:08:00.001+11:002018-10-16T10:12:57.233+11:00<h3 class="post-title entry-title" itemprop="name">
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><a href="https://seekingasylumdownunder2.blogspot.com/2012/08/back-to-future-on-boat-people.html">Back to the future on offshore detention - Australia's political culture fails the test of leadership</a></span></h3>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">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. </span></span></div>
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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? </span></span>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">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.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">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.</span></span>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">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.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiirV-Lf7Weel_s4pTzCmNVUG3hB_c20QjPRj2bryzVostZEmsYnyEc2e4nas8fTYRu9PPRU2_CVXTVWbsLk7OlC_F9wLCbMCfhaMbYix3-J5Q0oXGADvFYD-15zb3K1ijwXFE7Sg/s1600/australias-immigration-policy-costs-us-almost-10-billion-1473724467.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="365" data-original-width="650" height="179" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiirV-Lf7Weel_s4pTzCmNVUG3hB_c20QjPRj2bryzVostZEmsYnyEc2e4nas8fTYRu9PPRU2_CVXTVWbsLk7OlC_F9wLCbMCfhaMbYix3-J5Q0oXGADvFYD-15zb3K1ijwXFE7Sg/s320/australias-immigration-policy-costs-us-almost-10-billion-1473724467.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></div>
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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. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">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.</span></span>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">I propose a Royal Commission with Terms of Reference to include, but not be
limited to, an investigation of:</span></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
1. Implementation of offshore processing (including the
role and use of official aid)</span></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
2. Wrongful detention of refugees and permanent residents of Australia</span></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
3. Operation and financing of detention facilities on the mainland and offshore</span></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
4. Wrongful refoulement of asylum seekers and refugees</span></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
5. Influence of Ministers in the determination of immigration
decisions</span></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
6. Influence of 'understandings' and 'deals' with neighbouring countries on the
management of Australia's
refugee policies and programs</span></span></div>
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Alteregowunderbandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18329114155068414378noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11906396.post-46046301777270452622018-10-16T09:36:00.000+11:002018-10-16T09:36:09.312+11:00<span style="font-size: x-large;">The Morrison way...a well worn Coalition template</span><br />
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<br /><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">1. Punish asylum seekers by sending them to fly speck, Nauru, and
putting genuine refugees on TPVs to punish them some more<br />
<br />
2. Do not put a price on carbon<br />
<br />
3. Send welfare recipients to latter day salt mines for character building <br />
<br />
4. Do a lot of prayer meetings to convince people you're a holy roller<br />
<br />
5. Punish some more asylum seekers<br />
<br />
6. Give miners, polluters and media moguls tax free status<br />
<br />
7. Divert huge amounts of govt revenue to people on $200,000 or more per annum
as gesture of solidarity<br />
<br />
8. Divert huge amounts of annual aid budget to Nauru to keep Nauruans sweet<br />
<br />
9. Trash regional approaches to asylum seekers as we will decide who comes here
and the manner in which they come (preferably by Qantas)<br />
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10. Punish some more asylum seekers, just to keep the dog whistle in tune </span></span></div>
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Alteregowunderbandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18329114155068414378noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11906396.post-86716260571062208212018-10-12T14:03:00.000+11:002018-10-13T14:28:08.065+11:00<h3 class="post-title entry-title" itemprop="name">
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><a href="https://seekingasylumdownunder2.blogspot.com/2011/07/asylum-seekers-in-australia-memories-of.html">Asylum seekers in Australia: Memories of Tampa, a leaky boat and a dodgy government</a></span></h3>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">In 2011 the ABC reported "former Defence Force personnel have spoken
out about the Tampa and children overboard affair, accusing the Howard
government of manipulating events for political purposes".<br /><br />I was
in harness in PNG when the Tampa situation arose. My heart sank and my
stomach churned as I knew Howard was the type of politician to twist
these circumstances to his political benefit. Little did I know to what
extent I would be dragged into the disgusting quagmire that became
known as the Pacific Solution.<br /><br />I have mused on the experience as follows:<br /><br />"In
August 2001 news reports began filtering through that the Australian
Government led by John Howard as Prime Minister had detained a boatload
of mainly Afghani refugees on the high seas. The cargo vessel was the
Tampa, a word that has become etched indelibly into my consciousness.
The ‘boat people’ saga had begun. Ten weeks later the Australian people
returned the Howard Government to office in a general election and the
ignominious strategy to label offshore asylum seekers ‘illegals’ and
detain them in third countries had been labelled the Pacific Solution. </span></span></div>
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I am haunted by this epithet as it is resonates with sinister
‘solutions’ found elsewhere in the twentieth century in the name of
national security and identity. The cover notes to David Marr and
Marian Wilkinson’s chilling account of events that “shattered many of
the myths Australia has about itself and changed profoundly the way it
is seen in the eyes of the world” summarize events concisely:</span></span> <span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-style: italic;">They
put lives at risk. They twisted the law. They drew the military into
the heart of an election campaign. They muzzled the press. They
misused intelligence services, defied the United Nations, antagonized
Indonesia and bribed poverty stricken Pacific states. They closed
Australia to refugees – and won a mighty election victory. </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">At the time I was well into the second year of a diplomatic posting to
Papua New Guinea (PNG). I worked for Australia’s overseas aid agency,
AusAID. My career had involved me in human rights and refugee
activities in several countries, including Southern African states on
the front line against apartheid, Nepal, India and PNG. During my
working life Australia had held out a helping hand to refugees from
various conflicts, including Tibet, Afghanistan, Vietnam, Cambodia and
Sri Lanka. Now we were turning our back on Afghans fleeing the most
repressive and murderous regime to emerge out of the ruins of the Soviet
invasion, the Taliban.<br /><br /> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">I traveled to Afghanistan in the early
1970s as part of a wave of adventurous backpackers criss-crossing the
Middle East and South Asia during those halcyon years. A Russian
military presence was evident in Kabul but the hell of military invasion
was yet to unfold. Young Afghan students in western dress gathered in
coffee shops, tourists mixed with locals in cheap eating houses and
live music could be heard in the evenings, emanating from a myriad small
guest houses and hotels. <br /><br /> Kabul was a welcoming,
relaxed haven for travelers en route to exotic destinations in this
ancient tribal fiefdom, and Iran or Pakistan. Later as a doctoral
student in India I had the great fortune to form deep friendships with
both Afghans and Iranians. Some were escaping the strictures of the
Khomeini regime in Iran and the terrors of war in Afghanistan. India
provided a safe sanctuary and a place to study. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"> The
brutalization of Afghans and others under Australia’s refugee policies
was not only an affront to ideals that drew me into the arena of
overseas aid, but hurt at a more subtle emotional level as I projected
what it would mean for my erstwhile friends. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /><br /> The Tampa affair
and the crushing reality of the punitive policies it spawned saw me
withdraw iteratively from a state machine that was imprisoning refugees
in desert gulags, endangering lives of desperate people at sea,
engineering and re-engineering the Pacific Solution and the cruel regime
of temporary protection visas. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"> I had been involved on
the margins of the Pacific Solution in PNG but the crunch came in an
ironic twist. On return from PNG I was thrust into the midst of a
whole-of-government stratagem to punish refugees. As part of what I
perceived to be an orchestrated marginalization process by senior
managers, I was put in charge of aid to Nauru. This ill-begotten
program was a bribe to a failed state to accept complicity in our
politically motivated violation of the rights of the people dumped on
Nauru. It ran contrary to the various manifestos of sustainable
development and good governance we belaboured in our dealings with other
Pacific states dependent on Australian aid. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">By default
I became a member of the Prime Minister’s task force on offshore asylum
seekers or ‘illegal migrants’ or ‘boat people’, depending on the agenda
of the day. The core business of this group of senior public service,
police and defence assets was to construct, deconstruct and re-engineer
the legal, logistical and administrative underpinnings of boat arrivals
policy and to shape (spin) the official line for their political
masters. Lawyers were central to the exercise to test and tweak the
legal ramifications and inner workings of excising chunks of Australia
from the migration zone. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /><br />The most extreme construct involved
excision of the total Australian landmass from the migration zone. It
would be ‘pythonesque’ if the consequences were not so tragic for the
victims. I became a member of the Immigration Department’s coordination
committee on the Nauru detention facilities, which regularly and
perfunctorily discussed how to manage detainees who had self-harmed or
adopted other forms of protest. It was a dehumanizing, soul-destroying
experience."</span></span></div>
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Alteregowunderbandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18329114155068414378noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11906396.post-65781898718987043442018-10-11T10:35:00.000+11:002018-10-11T10:35:15.093+11:00<span style="font-size: x-large;">What's going on in the land of Oz...</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Morrison and his conga line of media cronies are continuing
the campaign to hold government by trashing Labor’s record on everything,
especially its policies on climate change, tax and asylum seekers. The science
on climate change is routinely questioned and vilified by skilled dog whistlers
and commentators compromised by their links to vested interests opposed to
carbon pricing. A largely ill-informed electorate have up until now swallowed
the sound bites and media grabs of this shoddy bunch and have been conned into
believing their life-styles are under threat. This may finally be changing…</span></span></span></div>
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Morrison pretends to care about the little people while doing the bidding of
the mining and power companies. He is a power monger of the worst sort. We have
seen his type of politician down through the ages. They set up straw men like ‘evil
strawberry terrorists’ to knock down and claim the credit for ‘saving’ the
people from some imaginary onslaught. He pitches a different message to
different audiences, depending on their relative levels of literacy. Demagogues
always operate like this - it is in their DNA to tailor the message to suit the
crowd and they are gifted at pressing the right buttons with confected outrage or
sanguine ‘nothing to see here’ messages. </span></span></span></div>
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Another plank of the strategy is to demonize the Labor leadership, much in the
way the Tea Party demonized Obama’s leadership in America. They paint a picture of
disunity, betrayal of the body politic, a ‘stab in the back’ for decent citizens
by a party beholden to ‘special interests’ such as unions and unspecified
‘elites’. More coded dog whistling to convince the electorate that Labor is incapable
of protecting the country from outside threats and the export of jobs. <span> </span></span></span>
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The Coalition has gained rich pickings from fear-mongering, as evidenced by electoral
support in Queensland, Tasmania,
Western Sydney and WA in recent years. Various
demographics drift to and from the ‘tea party’ rump of the LNP, in thrall to
simple minded messages on climate change, tax and good ole migrant &
refugee bashing. </span></span></div>
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In much of the media and shock-jock land narrow sectional interests get a
helpful leg up in most areas of debate on public policy. We get a diet of
reactionary, simple minded drivel on issues such as immigration & asylum
seekers and 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 infotainment for a presumed audience with the
concentration span of a distracted gnat. </span></span></div>
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Misinformation and outright disinformation have become the currency of many
mainstream commentators. The template for this was set up with the formation of
the Gillard minority government. Many in the print, radio and television media
did not like the result and wanted it gone.<span>
</span>Turnbull is the most recent victim of this phenomenon.</span></span></div>
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Morrison’s approach is to don baseball caps and work safe gear and roam bloke
dominated small and medium businesses, pretending to care about working people
and announcing the end of civilization has been postponed through his prayer tour. A
true ‘man of the people’ with an eye to the big end of town (nudge, wink)…Howard
battlers should be checking their back pockets because they’re being conned
again.</span></span><br />
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Alteregowunderbandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18329114155068414378noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11906396.post-82953600265890658542018-10-09T13:07:00.000+11:002018-10-09T13:07:54.498+11:00<br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;">The end of the conga line...</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3WExCgwzXPfQS-yxuAl-ea0bJ6nFZo98vgGbCRn6e-zjTU43zv2SrhvrMR-L6uQnQ1c6SC8BxbWAp0SuWZIPitUloThzu-VDy_QcILype1SWx-ptD_ZRhG-LtSpQtR3xU4RY0mw/s1600/Scomo+and+sovereign+borders.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="432" data-original-width="768" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3WExCgwzXPfQS-yxuAl-ea0bJ6nFZo98vgGbCRn6e-zjTU43zv2SrhvrMR-L6uQnQ1c6SC8BxbWAp0SuWZIPitUloThzu-VDy_QcILype1SWx-ptD_ZRhG-LtSpQtR3xU4RY0mw/s320/Scomo+and+sovereign+borders.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">The asylum seeker issue is fueled by hysteria and incendiary demonizing
by Morrison and his ilk and finds a largely credulous audience with their ready
prejudices, determined to disbelieve the legitimate
claims of asylum seekers who didn’t stand in a non-existent queue of
orderly people waiting for whichever repressive regime they are escaping
to allow them to migrate, or a third world stopover suffused with
social and economic disadvantage. The silliness of this position
overwhelms me at times.<br /><br />The history of propaganda reveals you can
package lies very successfully if they play to irrational fears and
prejudices – it is especially difficult to counter when cloaked in the
garb of ‘border security’. So the term ‘illegals’ is tailor made for the
job!<br /><br />The Coalition’s constant vilification of Labor for being
weak on border protection has now morphed into a hypocritical concern
for the rights of refugees. We were told these would
be protected on Manus and Nauru.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"> But how can anyone forget the Libs’ response to Tampa and kids
overboard? Blame the victims for their own plight, extract as much
sensationalism out of the role of people smugglers, put words in the
mouth of ADF personnel who cannot answer for themselves, and then whip
up public sentiment against refugees. Throw in dollops of confected
outrage over your political opponents complete lack of preparedness to
face down the ‘threat’ and you have your stock in trade ‘dog whistle’
response to the terrible plight of some of the most vulnerable people on
the planet.<br /><br />Oh, I forgot - then you can set about making weak
neighbouring countries complicit in policies that violate human rights!
Sadly, the Labor government fell in behind this construct too easily! It
now has an opportunity to put things right...</span></div>
Alteregowunderbandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18329114155068414378noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11906396.post-8082184110584163532018-10-09T10:36:00.001+11:002018-10-09T10:45:01.184+11:00<h2>
<span style="font-size: x-large;">Asylum seeker management - another way - An open letter to Labor</span></h2>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Under the Howard government mandatory detention of asylum seekers
evolved into a tragic farce. Australians were alarmingly sanguine about
the travesty. Its worst manifestation was the Pacific Solution, which I
became embroiled in through the Nauru aid program. Of
particular concern to me were the tawdry misuses of official aid under
the Pacific Solution and the downstream implications of the strategy,
which was made up on the run by bureaucrats doing their level best to
engineer good outcomes from bad political motives. The perfunctory
official approaches adopted toward self-harming detainees were another
disturbing aspect. <br /><br />As the Party responsible for the legislative
framework (in particular 'mandatory detention') within which Howard
evolved his refugee 'house of horrors', it is appropriate that a Labor
Govt put Australia's human rights compliance at the top of the
international agenda and put our domestic laws ‘house’ back in order."<br /><br />Tragically,
the failure to shine a light on the true mentality behind the
prosecution of these earlier policies saw the ghost of the Pacific
Solution and the shop of horrors that was the Howard Govt's refugee
program continue to linger in the corridors of power. <br /><br />As an
erstwhile member of the Howard Government's task force on 'illegal'
migration I am completely cognizant of the issues surrounding the Bali
framework process. I am supportive of a regional approach that stops
boats but doesn't breach the UN convention on treatment of refugees.
Playing the bidding game on who can be hardest on boat arrivals and 'detention without end' is cynical politics, and it fails to
satisfy the requirements of a progressive charter in this area. <br /><br />The
mandatory detention regime opened a Pandora's box of opportunities for
low rent political agendas, which politicians like Howard, Abbott, Turnbull, Morrison and Dutton
have exploited ruthlessly. Labor is continually playing catch up, rather
than biting the bullet by re-examining the rationale for long-term
mandatory detention and changing the tenor of the whole debate. <br /><br />The
unedifying sight of Labor politicians jumping on the xenophobia
bandwagon was one of the key reasons I left the party, as I saw
defenceless people used as betting chips in a nasty bidding war. <br /><br />Labor
could re-capture the high ground by reviewing mandatory detention and
off-shore processing policy and wring the necessary changes? A public
information program to explain the reasoning behind the changes,
including Australia's obligations under international refugee and human
rights instruments, could usher a new awareness of our collective
standing and responsibility as a defender of human rights. <br /><br />This
would be attractive to the progressive side of the Labor support base
and small 'L' Liberals. Maybe its time to make our general decency
something Australians can be proud of again! A sensible, humane and
orderly approach to offshore processing, which involves regional
partners to their benefit, could be a crucial element to stymie the
smuggling trade, whilst enabling on-shore processing within the
community after mandatory health and security checks are completed in short-term
detention. <br /><br />Arrangements with key community groups to manage
welfare, work-for-allowance strategies and language training could be
developed to integrate asylum seekers in the larger society soon after
their arrival. Regional areas with labour shortfalls could be targeted
for short-term settlement in this respect.<br /><br />The UNHCR, IOM could
be brought in as partners in the process to lend their mandated
legitimacy to the exercise. Isn't it time to stop playing to the
reactionary game book?</span></span></div>
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Alteregowunderbandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18329114155068414378noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11906396.post-14676454145912417712018-10-08T15:57:00.000+11:002018-10-08T15:57:21.062+11:00<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwXy4XY-GcFVYWUK3Gtu75ktsEYLdJjyKC4Cj-98fusIEXrkhLU4dr-CjCA5yxp8UUbzbrlilbfhiTx24D5KF8knwmMrzvDnbhpIff1scEkYcEn-WUbUKqlnZ_WCBE84e8gcEqUA/s1600/Kids+off+Nauru.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="578" data-original-width="960" height="192" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwXy4XY-GcFVYWUK3Gtu75ktsEYLdJjyKC4Cj-98fusIEXrkhLU4dr-CjCA5yxp8UUbzbrlilbfhiTx24D5KF8knwmMrzvDnbhpIff1scEkYcEn-WUbUKqlnZ_WCBE84e8gcEqUA/s320/Kids+off+Nauru.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />Alteregowunderbandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18329114155068414378noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11906396.post-40244183658054717902018-10-08T12:46:00.001+11:002018-10-08T12:54:09.736+11:00<h2>
Poor fella my country...</h2>
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<span style="font-size: large;">In August 2012 I wrote a closing post to this blog. Nothing has changed, so I'll reprise my thoughts and get back in the saddle...</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">"I am appalled by the decision to reprise the Pacific Solution. On so
many levels it is an abject failure of public policy. A legacy of the
Howard years is a default toward fear and division on the issue of boat
arrivals. It was an easy target for ideologues bent on shoring up the
conservative support base with a radical reactionary agenda that lends
itself easily to demagoguery.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"> </span>
<span style="font-size: large;"></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">
Although the recommendations of the expert panel point toward a more
humane regional framework approach as a long term objective, the reality
is that many asylum seekers will be subject to years of uncertainty and
an outright violation of their human rights by a Labor Government. A
mandatory detention regime is a violation of human rights. To preempt
someone's refugee status on the basis of their irregular arrival by boat
is illogical and cruel. </span><br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">However, the tenor of public debate in
Australia since Tampa has been infused with the kind of hysteria
associated with fear politics. We have seen this construct at work all
through history and it invariably succeeds for a period, until people
wake up to the fact that their prejudices have been manipulated by
unscrupulous politicians and their supporters for political gain.</span>
<span style="font-size: large;"></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">
The evil banality of the hypocrisy underpinning the Coalition's stance
on boat arrivals is laid bare for anyone with a passing knowledge of
refugee matters. You will hear constant mealy mouthed posturings by
Coalition politicians purporting to be concerned about the refugee
convention and the welfare of children. In the same breath as they
plead for off-shore processing to be restricted to countries that have
signed the refugee convention, they advocate turning back boats to a
country that hasn't signed the convention, putting the unfortunates on
board in more harm's way. Where was this great concern for the refugee
convention when the Pacific Solution was initiated? No where to be
seen.</span>
<span style="font-size: large;"></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">
The media has mainly been a pliant player in prosecuting this nasty
farce. It is hard to feel proud of this country when its key
institutions are so culpable in enabling this mind-numbing outcome to be
foisted on the body politic.
Rather than represent the best of us, these politicians have stooped
lower and lower to the point where we are plumbing new depths of
intolerance, fear and cruelty, with poor neighboring countries active
participants in this perfidy. It is truly disgusting and should be
condemned in the strongest terms.</span>
<span style="font-size: large;"></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">I'm ceasing this blog activity as my will to persevere has been crushed
by this demoralizing climate of bigotry and 'creeping crypto-fascism'. I
find I don't have anything else to add - my <a href="http://seekingasylumdownunder2.blogspot.com.au/2011/09/asylum-seekers-in-australia-open-letter.html">previous posts</a>
sum it up. I am ashamed of this country's political culture, which
routinely rewards the worst political opportunists who dress themselves
in the garb of the common folk and who pitch successfully to the lowest
common denominator."</span><br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
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Alteregowunderbandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18329114155068414378noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11906396.post-31184104999379734602018-10-08T11:59:00.001+11:002018-10-08T11:59:20.938+11:00<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="color: red;">The Resurrection</span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<h4 style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: red;">After many years absence this blog is being resurrected. The ongoing disgrace of offshore detention of innocents can't be allowed to stand. The leaders responsible for these crimes against humanity will be held accountable one day, and I don't think the 'Nuremberg' defence will wash.</span></span></h4>
<h4 style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: red;"> </span></span></h4>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9Vev-F5PxpWIz_0u9aaVQmRrNd7Y9Pdfc4vGozzooe08S1ubFfRLAfm2JYm9o3DZzWn9JockIbqgcKFW6PS2CX1hLGDv-q8-T5W8r2YqKr5lUCLCFUkOXKGfXLYUeHWnCylRnOQ/s1600/Nauru+camp.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="562" data-original-width="1000" height="179" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9Vev-F5PxpWIz_0u9aaVQmRrNd7Y9Pdfc4vGozzooe08S1ubFfRLAfm2JYm9o3DZzWn9JockIbqgcKFW6PS2CX1hLGDv-q8-T5W8r2YqKr5lUCLCFUkOXKGfXLYUeHWnCylRnOQ/s320/Nauru+camp.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<h4 style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: red;"> </span></span></h4>
Alteregowunderbandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18329114155068414378noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11906396.post-67127358442200939712012-08-16T12:40:00.000+10:002012-08-20T10:42:19.946+10:00Back to the future on boat people - Australia's political culture fails the test of leadershipI am appalled by the decision to reprise the Pacific Solution. On so many levels it is an abject failure of public policy. A legacy of the Howard years is a default toward fear and division on the issue of boat arrivals. It was an easy target for ideologues bent on shoring up the conservative support base with a radical reactionary agenda that lends itself easily to demagoguery.<br />
<br />
Although the recommendations of the expert panel point toward a more humane regional framework approach as a long term objective, the reality is that many asylum seekers will be subject to years of uncertainty and an outright violation of their human rights by a Labor Government. A mandatory detention regime is a violation of human rights. To preempt someone's refugee status on the basis of their irregular arrival by boat is illogical and cruel. However, the tenor of public debate in Australia since Tampa has been infused with the kind of hysteria associated with fear politics. We have seen this construct at work all through history and it invariably succeeds for a period, until people wake up to the fact that their prejudices have been manipulated by unscrupulous politicians and their supporters for political gain.<br />
<br />
The evil banality of the hypocrisy underpinning the Coalition's stance on boat arrivals is laid bare for anyone with a passing knowledge of refugee matters. You will hear constant mealy mouthed posturings by Coalition politicians purporting to be concerned about the refugee convention and the welfare of children. In the same breath as they plead for off-shore processing to be restricted to countries that have signed the refugee convention, they advocate turning back boats to a country that hasn't signed the convention, putting the unfortunates on board in more harm's way. Where was this great concern for the refugee convention when the Pacific Solution was initiated? No where to be seen.<br />
<br />
The media has mainly been a pliant player in prosecuting this nasty farce. It is hard to feel proud of this country when its key institutions are so culpable in enabling this mind-numbing outcome to be foisted on the body politic.
Rather than represent the best of us, these politicians have stooped lower and lower to the point where we are plumbing new depths of intolerance, fear and cruelty, with poor neighboring countries active participants in this perfidy. It is truly disgusting and should be condemned in the strongest terms.<br />
<br />
I'm ceasing this blog activity as my will to persevere has been crushed by this demoralizing climate of bigotry and 'creeping crypto-fascism'. I find I don't have anything else to add - my <a href="http://seekingasylumdownunder2.blogspot.com.au/2011/09/asylum-seekers-in-australia-open-letter.html">previous posts</a> sum it up. I am ashamed of this country's political culture, which routinely rewards the worst political opportunists who dress themselves in the garb of the common folk and who pitch successfully to the lowest common denominator. There are none worse in my lifetime than the current leader of the Opposition. Poor fella my country.....
Alteregowunderbandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18329114155068414378noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11906396.post-41029706879861530042011-11-03T00:09:00.004+11:002011-11-03T00:15:36.761+11:00Sheridan in trouble over use of the term 'illegals' - what are the odds this pamphleteer would be whipping up fear & loathing?<a href="http://www.crikey.com.au/2011/11/02/sheridan-flouts-press-council-directive-on-illegal-asylum-seekers/#comments">Crikey</a> reports today that "Sheridan flouts Press Council directive on ‘illegal’ asylum seekers". I put my two bob's worth into the fray, repeating sentiments oft articulated on this site:<br /><br />"Sheridan is amongst a group of commentators on international affairs who dress narrow polemics up as reasoned analysis. This guy is a propagandist from way back.<br /><br />The asylum seeker issue is fuelled by hysteria and incendiary demonising by his ilk and finds a largely credulous audience with their ready prejudices (like this twit above), ready to disbelieve the legitimate claims of asylum seekers who didn’t stand in a non-existent queue of orderly people waiting for whichever repressive regime they are escaping to allow them to migrate, or a third world stopover suffused with social and economic disadvantage. The silliness of this position overwhelms me at times.<br /><br />The history of propaganda reveals you can package lies very successfully if they play to irrational fears and prejudices – it is especially difficult to counter when cloaked in the garb of ‘border security’. So the term ‘illegals’ is tailor made for the job!<br /><br />The Coalition’s constant vilification of Labor for being weak on border protection has now morphed into a hypocritical concern for the rights of refugees. These of course - yes, you guessed it - will be protected on Nauru.<br /><br />But how can anyone forget the Libs’ response to Tampa and kids overboard? Blame the victims for their own plight, extract as much sensationalism out of the role of people smugglers, put words in the mouth of ADF personnel who cannot answer for themselves, and then whip up public sentiment against refugees. Throw in dollops of confected outrage over your political opponents complete lack of preparedness to face down the ‘threat’ and you have your stock in trade ‘dog whistle’ response to the terrible plight of some of the most vulnerable people on the planet.<br /><br />Oh, I forgot - then you can set about making weak neighbouring countries complicit in policies that violate human rights! Sadly, the Labor government fell in behind this construct too easily! It now has an opportunity to put things right.<br /><br />Is it possible that our general decency might be something Australians can be proud of again? A sensible, humane and orderly approach to offshore processing, which involves regional partners to their benefit, could be a crucial element to stymie the smuggling trade, whilst enabling on-shore processing within the community after mandatory health checks are completed in short-term detention.<br /><br />Arrangements with key community groups to manage welfare, work-for-allowance strategies and language training could be developed to integrate asylum seekers in the larger society soon after their arrival. Regional areas with labour shortfalls could be targeted for short-term settlement in this respect.<br /><br />The UNHCR & IOM could be brought in as partners in the process to lend their mandated legitimacy to the exercise. Isn’t it time to stop playing the narcissistic school-yard drop-kick with the bullying posture and derogatory language and start behaving like responsible grown-ups?"<br /><br />What are the odds?Alteregowunderbandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18329114155068414378noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11906396.post-63389813627906744122011-10-18T14:30:00.001+11:002011-10-18T14:33:21.307+11:00Media nasties getting warmed up on carbon tax and asylum seekersOccasionally I wander off the reservation into hostile territory to see how the restless are behaving. Today’s sojourn was Ackerman’s blog on the Daily Telegraph, with the catchy title, “Carbon tax is like a stink bomb in a very small car”, a nasty little polemic which can be read at:<br /><br />http://blogs.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/piersakerman/index.php/dailytelegraph/comments/carbon_tax_is_like_a_stink_bomb_in_a_very_small_car/<br /><br />The comments section were like a tea party picnic convention, with the only thing missing being confederate flags, pit bulls and attack rifles. I left the following comment & withdrew to higher ground:<br /><br />“Wow, what a grizzle fest.! This should be called Ackerman and his acolytes. Hey, you all trying to out do each other in the ‘who can be the most gratuitously vacuous and obnoxious’ stakes, you are no doubt frothing with excitement at the prospect of a political shock-jock like Abbott break dancing his way into office. Be careful what you wish for.<br /><br />We get a daily diet of reactionary, simple minded drivel on issues such as immigration & asylum seekers and important areas of public policy are ‘spun’ through the lens of media pamphleteers like this author, who knows how to pitch to a well-worn prejudice and who survives on a dumbed-down strategy of sound-bites, ‘gotcha’ moments and limpid sensationalism. This is political analysis reduced to talk-show patter and infotainment for a presumed audience with a knowledge base and the concentration span of a distracted gnat. Oh, that’s right, I forgot, its a conspiracy of latte-sipping left wingers in inner city suburbs – spare me!! If you believe that drivel you and this author are made for each other.<br /><br />Under the ‘great con’ Abbott has replaced the biking lycra with reflective lime industrial tops & roams bloke dominated small businesses and mining enterprises, filleting fish, carrying cartons of stuff, digging up stuff, butchering meat, rolling in oats and wheat, etc etc etc, pretending to care about working people and announcing the end of civilization as we know it. A true ‘man of the people’ with an eye to the big end of town (nudge, wink) …Howard battlers should be checking their back pockets because they’re being shafted again.”Alteregowunderbandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18329114155068414378noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11906396.post-92161276761215295382011-10-16T10:13:00.004+11:002011-10-17T15:54:05.265+11:00Asylum seekers in Australia - can Australia 'grow up' and confront its past failings in this area of human rights?The Howard govt turned itself inside out to excise huge slices of the migration zone as part of its manic determination to repel 'boat people'. The Pacific Solution fiasco underpinned the 'illegal boat people' wedge Howard launched in 2001. I was part of the PM's task force that worked on these issues.<br /><br />Sadly, the 'dog whistle' has been sounded loud and clear by Abbott and his conga line of wing nut mates, and the 'xenophobe' crowd have responded with alacrity. Within their simple-minded construct it's all the Gillard government's fault! Labor instigated a more humane approach to refugees, although it would have been improved by taking the Christmas Island stopover out of the equation and emphasising community processing. Rudd abolished the egregious TPV regime, which was a violation of refugee rights and a nasty scar on our human rights landscape. Having explored regional offshore processing options to negate the people smuggling trade, Gillard is now flagging a shift toward a more reasoned approach, having failed to get bi-partisanship on offshore processing! <br /><br />The Coalition's constant vilification of Labor for being weak on border protection has now morphed into a hypocritical concern for the rights of refugees. These of course - yes, you guessed it - will be protected on Nauru. <br /><br />But how can anyone forget the Libs' response to Tampa and kids overboard? Blame the victims for their own plight, extract as much sensationalism out of the role of people smugglers, put words in the mouth of ADF personnel who cannot answer for themselves, and then whip up public sentiment against refugees. Throw in dollops of confected outrage over your political opponents complete lack of preparedness to face down the 'threat' and you have your stock in trade 'dog whistle' response to the terrible plight of some of the most vulnerable people on the planet.<br /><br />Oh, I forgot - then you can set about making weak neighbouring countries complicit in policies that violate human rights! Sadly, the Labor government fell in behind this construct too easily!<br /><br />The cruel stupidity of processing asylum seekers in excised areas (unable to access the same legal rights as those who reach our migration zone by air) or in countries unwilling to treat people humanely, must end. Either by default or Machiavellian manoeuvring, Labor can now align our Migration Act with international law and refugee conventions and kick the Howard construct to the 'shit house' of history.Alteregowunderbandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18329114155068414378noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11906396.post-28086151781958489762011-10-16T09:51:00.003+11:002011-10-16T10:00:05.506+11:00Asylum seekers in Australia - New approaches to onshore processing<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiE8niOmJgFcBlQOWm55wdrPVaJbwG3aK6GMAsDq6gkT4_03VFKVcEMFrGISV45n3mIIZU-sS3Wi3FwpsyKitcakcITuNJ4_D70nrzTEsBcNF_5eehNysFNWeZ2AVBNICygI9-0_g/s1600/Asylum+seekers+fenced+in.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 267px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiE8niOmJgFcBlQOWm55wdrPVaJbwG3aK6GMAsDq6gkT4_03VFKVcEMFrGISV45n3mIIZU-sS3Wi3FwpsyKitcakcITuNJ4_D70nrzTEsBcNF_5eehNysFNWeZ2AVBNICygI9-0_g/s400/Asylum+seekers+fenced+in.jpg" border="0"alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5663857116408541730" /></a><br /><br />Cabinet ministers have begun discussing whether to send asylum seekers to regional areas in need of workers.<br /><br />Anyone who reads this blog (at least 5 people) will know <a href="http://seekingasylumdownunder2.blogspot.com/2011/09/asylum-seekers-in-australia-open-letter.html">I put a number of points to the PM recently</a> on ways and means of managing onshore processing. Trawling through Poll Bludger this morning I stumbled across a comment that quotes Misha Schubert's piece in The Age, entitled <a href="http://www.theage.com.au/national/off-the-boat-into-the-bush-20111015-1lqnm.html">'Off the boat, into the bush'</a>.<br /><br />It seems these ideas are percolating around policy makers in the immigration area!Alteregowunderbandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18329114155068414378noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11906396.post-52844942589311495602011-10-14T09:54:00.002+11:002011-10-14T10:01:10.120+11:00Asylum seekers in Australia - PM moves to treat asylum seekers more humanely<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0mXRDGZ5hDTg5SsV99XmFAyBeaAhbbgYFpcySwogZ5XUeGirQ8Zi9XRjgHwq3XniTxUFh79Bd9EJjWWIFxXSMNiBGwdIW3A9DWr92F6ScOt0J-z0xmdAn5TVaPKgwM7wsvo0IMQ/s1600/Human+beings.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 258px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0mXRDGZ5hDTg5SsV99XmFAyBeaAhbbgYFpcySwogZ5XUeGirQ8Zi9XRjgHwq3XniTxUFh79Bd9EJjWWIFxXSMNiBGwdIW3A9DWr92F6ScOt0J-z0xmdAn5TVaPKgwM7wsvo0IMQ/s400/Human+beings.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5663115595001736514" /></a><br />Writing in The Age, <a href="http://www.theage.com.au/national/pm-forced-into-retreat-on-asylum-seeker-plan-20111013-1ln7s.html">Michael Gordon</a>, reports on the sharp shift in the Gillard Government's approach to asylum seekers:<br /><br />"PRIME Minister Julia Gillard has conceded defeat on her asylum seeker policy, forcing her to signal a shift to more community-based processing of people who arrive in Australia by boat.<br /><br />In a humiliating admission of failure, Ms Gillard finally conceded last night her asylum seeker legislation had collapsed - but insisted she remained committed to the Malaysia people-swap plan that the bill aimed to legalise.<br /><br />In the meantime, the government says it will process more asylum seekers arriving by boat in the community to stop an expected increase in numbers overloading the immigration detention system."Alteregowunderbandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18329114155068414378noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11906396.post-23238397088396212072011-10-13T08:47:00.008+11:002011-10-13T09:02:37.673+11:00A day in Parliament: Deliverance day dawns, denouement dunks demogoguery, dickheads declaim democratic default, delousing dispatches dem downstairsAlteregowunderbandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18329114155068414378noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11906396.post-44020484377939126942011-09-17T10:50:00.002+10:002011-09-22T23:47:30.903+10:00Asylum seekers in Australia - Open letter to the Prime MinisterPrime Minister, I'm one of those rusted on Labor supporters who let my membership lapse prior to the last election because of disillusionment with the drift away from core Labor values in the 'business' of politics. <br /><br />Under the Howard government mandatory detention of asylum seekers evolved into a tragic farce. Australians were alarmingly sanguine about the travesty. Its worst manifestation was the Pacific Solution, which I became embroiled in as AusAID Director of the Nauru aid program. Of particular concern to me were the tawdry misuses of official aid under the Pacific Solution and the downstream implications of the strategy, which was made up on the run by bureaucrats doing their level best to engineer good outcomes from bad political motives. The perfunctory official approaches adopted toward self-harming detainees were another disturbing aspect. <br /><br />As the Party responsible for the legislative framework (in particular 'mandatory detention') within which Howard evolved his refugee 'house of horrors', it is appropriate that a Labor Govt put Australia's human rights compliance at the top of the international agenda and put our domestic laws ‘house’ back in order."<br /><br />Tragically, the failure to shine a light on the true mentality behind the prosecution of these earlier policies saw the ghost of the Pacific Solution and the shop of horrors that was the Howard Govt's refugee program continue to linger in the corridors of power. <br /><br />As an erstwhile member of the Howard Government's task force on 'illegal' migration I am completely cognisant of the issues surrounding the Bali framework process. I am supportive of a regional approach that stops boats but does'nt breach the UN convention on treatment of refugees. Your current brinkmanship is no doubt good politics, but it fails to satisfy the requirements of a progressive charter in this area. <br /><br />The mandatory detention regime opened a Pandora's box of opportunities for low rent political agendas, which politicians like Howard and Abbott have exploited ruthlessly. Labor is continually playing catch up, rather than biting the bullet by re-examining the rationale for long-term mandatory detention and changing the tenor of the whole debate. <br /><br />The unedifying sight of Labor politicians jumping on the xenophobia bandwagon was one of the key reasons I left the party, as I saw defenceless people used as betting chips in a nasty bidding war. <br /><br />Labor could re-capture the high ground by reviewing mandatory detention and off-shore processing policy and wring the necessary changes? A public information program to explain the reasoning behind the changes, including Australia's obligations under international refugee and human rights instruments, could usher a new awareness of our collective standing and responsibility as a defender of human rights. <br /><br />This would be attractive to the progressive side of the Labor support base and small 'L' Liberals. Maybe its time to make our general decency something Australians can be proud of again! A sensible, humane and orderly approach to offshore processing, which involves regional partners to their benefit, could be a crucial element to stymie the smuggling trade, whilst enabling on-shore processing within the community after mandatory health checks are completed in short-term detention. <br /><br />Arrangements with key community groups to manage welfare, work-for-allowance strategies and language training could be developed to integrate asylum seekers in the larger society soon after their arrival. Regional areas with labour shortfalls could be targeted for short-term settlement in this respect.<br /><br />The UNHCR, IOM could be brought in as partners in the process to lend their mandated legitimacy to the exercise. Isn't it time to stop playing to the reactionary's game book? I for one would rejoin the ALP if this approach was followed.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfv6A1zB1X5-oIGTMYAQ5OIhh_0OmRNg7HFiKFLKmrvu-gI4we3h7OMCjvmyPwM9laQDJuzUAbxJRCNAoP_7SQUUUb8uMweAXP6rCM7AbOwNAW-pTu0AM0ybIcuIbzSHFwC2ajRQ/s1600/110511-Race-to-the-Bottom-6001.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 330px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfv6A1zB1X5-oIGTMYAQ5OIhh_0OmRNg7HFiKFLKmrvu-gI4we3h7OMCjvmyPwM9laQDJuzUAbxJRCNAoP_7SQUUUb8uMweAXP6rCM7AbOwNAW-pTu0AM0ybIcuIbzSHFwC2ajRQ/s400/110511-Race-to-the-Bottom-6001.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5655180051231641810" /></a>Alteregowunderbandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18329114155068414378noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11906396.post-38277728228537733392011-09-01T13:47:00.003+10:002011-09-01T14:13:17.218+10:00Asylum seekers in Australia - mandatory detention & offshore processing are failed policies!Howard's policies toward refugees wrought immense change in my life. The alarming shift this country took in 2001 left me angry and dispirited. I felt the moral and ethical basis of our commitment to protect human rights had been compromised, and that vulnerable human beings in need of help had become pawns in a ruthless political agenda.
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<br />After Rudd's election Australia continued to disregard human rights in the treatment of asylum seekers. The government detained new arrivals on Christmas Island, which was commissioned by the Howard Govt when it became abundantly clear Nauru was a failed option.
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<br />Throughout the decade since 2001 the usual suspects have branded irregular boat arrivals as 'queue jumpers' to justify their treatment as criminals or 'illegals'. With the latest High Court decision it has become painfully clear that the government must be required to treat new arrivals humanely and to counter attempts by politicians, media and other commentators to demonize them for political and other purposes.
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<br />When Rudd came to power I wrote to the then Immigration Minister, Sen Evans, as follows:
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<br />"Under the previous government mandatory detention of asylum seekers evolved into a tragic farce played out under the gaze of key UN watchdog bodies. In Australia, apart from refugee advocate groups, the general population was alarmingly sanguine about the travesty. Its worst manifestation was the Pacific Solution, which I became embroiled in as AusAID Director of the Nauru aid program. Thankfully, one of the earliest actions of the Rudd Govt was to abolish the Pacific Solution. However, I think the Govt has to go further...
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<br />The Howard Govt thumbed its nose at the 'UN Committee against Torture' in 2005, standing by its asylum seeker policies as ‘just & fair’. In fact Howard et al thumbed their noses at international human rights instruments throughout their tenure and actively sought to undermine the credibility of the UN committee process.
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<br />Thankfully this dark chapter is over. To signal that the change wrought by the Rudd Govt represents more than window dressing, and to keep faith with UN and other international processes, I suggest a thorough judicial review is needed of the asylum seeker policies and programs of the previous Govt. The review Terms of Reference should include, but not be limited to, an investigation of:
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<br />1. Implementation of the Pacific Solution (this of course should encompass the role and use of official aid)
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<br />2. Wrongful detention of refugees and permanent residents of Australia (taking account of the previous reviews and the report of the Commonwealth Ombudsman)
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<br />3. Operation and financing of detention facilities on the mainland and offshore
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<br />4. Wrongful repatriation of asylum seekers (a particular concern of the UN Committee against Torture)
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<br />5. Influence of political staffers and Ministers in the determination of immigration decisions
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<br />6. Role of the Prime Minister's task force on 'illegal' migration'
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<br />7. Influence of 'understandings' and 'deals' with neighbouring countries on the management of Australia's refugee policies and programs
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<br />Of particular concern to me were the tawdry misuses of official aid under the Pacific Solution and the downstream implications of the strategy, which was made up on the run by bureaucrats doing their level best to engineer good outcomes from bad political motives. The perfunctory official approaches adopted toward self-harming detainees were another disturbing aspect.
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<br />As the Party that put in place the legislative framework (in particular 'mandatory detention') within which Howard evolved his refugee 'house of horrors', it is appropriate that a Labor Govt put Australia's human rights compliance at the top of the international agenda and put our domestic laws ‘house’ back in order."
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<br />Tragically, the failure to shine a light on the true mentality behind the prosecution of these policies saw the ghost of the Pacific Solution and the shop of horrors that was the Howard Govt's refugee program continue to linger in the corridors of power.
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<br />Will Labor now bite the bullet and review its mandatory detention policy and wring the necessary changes? A public information program to explain the reasoning behind the changes, including Australia's obligations under international refugee and human rights instruments, could usher a new awareness of our collective standing and responsibility as a defender of human rights.
<br />Alteregowunderbandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18329114155068414378noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11906396.post-53064213611272456472011-08-23T18:52:00.003+10:002011-08-25T23:32:52.262+10:00Abbott watch - what motivates the hate rallies?<a href="http://www.crikey.com.au/2011/08/23/on-the-trail-of-the-persecuted-what-motivates-the-parl-house-rallies/#comment-154547">Crikey has a piece today by Bernard Keane</a>, pondering the question, "What motivates the Parl house rallies?"
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<br />I've proffered my two bob's worth:
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<br />"Abbott and his conga line of media cronies are continuing the thinly camouflaged campaign to win government by trashing the Government’s record and its attempt to put a price on carbon. The science on climate change is routinely questioned and vilified by skilled dog whistlers and commentators compromised by their links to vested interests opposed to carbon pricing. A largely ill-informed electorate swallow the sound bites and media grabs of this shoddy bunch and are conned into believing their life-styles are under threat.
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<br />Abbott pretends to care about the little people while doing the bidding of the mining and power companies. He is a fear monger-er of the worst sort. We have seen his type of politician down through the ages. They set up straw men to knock down and claim the credit for ‘saving’ the people from some imaginary onslaught. He pitches a different message to different audiences, depending on their relative levels of literacy - in the case of the recent rally outside Parliament three word slogans were more than enough. Demagogues always operate like this - it is in their DNA to tailor the message to suit the crowd and they are gifted at pressing the right fear buttons with confected outrage and anger.
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<br />Another plank of the strategy is to demonize the Labor leadership, much in the way the Tea Party is demonizing Obama’s leadership in America. They paint a picture of disunity, betrayal of the body politic, a ‘stab in the back’ for decent citizens by a government beholden to ‘special interests’ and unspecified ‘elites’. More coded dog whistling to convince the electorate that their government is weak and incapable of protecting the country from outside threats and the export of jobs. Our PM is branded a liar, wooden, childless and weak. A nasty legend has been woven by misogynistic spin meisters who want their boy in power, and they will do anything (within the law presumably) to achieve it.
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<br />The Coalition has gained rich pickings from fear-mongering, as evidenced by the Queensland vote at the last general election. 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 carbon & mining taxes and good ole migrant & refugee bashing.
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<br />In much of the media and shock-jock land narrow sectional interests get a helpful leg up in most areas of debate on public policy. We get a diet of reactionary, simple minded drivel on issues such as immigration & asylum seekers and 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 infotainment for a presumed audience with the concentration span of a distracted gnat.
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<br />Misinformation and outright disinformation have become the currency of many mainstream commentators. The template for this was set up with the formation of a minority government. Many in the print, radio and television media did not like this result. They did not anticipate it, they have no control over it, and they want it gone. A political shock-jock like Abbott thrives in this landscape.
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<br />He has replaced the biking lycra with reflective lime industrial tops & roams bloke dominated small businesses and mining enterprises, filleting fish, carrying cartons of stuff, digging up stuff, butchering meat, rolling in oats and wheat, etc etc etc, pretending to care about working people and announcing the end of civilization as we know it. A true ‘man of the people’ with an eye to the big end of town (nudge, wink) …Howard battlers should be checking their back pockets because they’re being conned again."
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<br />I've said it all before but nothing has changed so I'll say it again....Alteregowunderbandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18329114155068414378noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11906396.post-38101598705180241872011-08-22T08:41:00.004+10:002011-08-22T22:35:18.807+10:00Alert & alarmed: Canberrans worried successive anti-carbon tax protests lowering average IQ of CanberraAlteregowunderbandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18329114155068414378noreply@blogger.com0