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Disclaimer: Please note that this is an article by Judi Moylan published in various media including Newmatilda. It is not about Italy, Norway, Sweden or Holland nor about Gerard.
Asylum Policy A ‘Vortex Of Political Posturing’
By Judi Moylan
https://newmatilda.com//2013/10/24/asylum-policy-vortex-political-posturing
The Abbott government’s Operation Sovereign Borders is unduly provocative, writes former Liberal MP Judi Moylan, as she concludes her series on the history of Australian border policy.
This is the second in a two-part series about the history of Australian border policy. Read the first part here.https://newmatilda.com/2013/10/21/echoes-white-australia
The Gang Of Four
When Parliament resumed in 2005, four Liberal Party Members of Parliament, Petro Georgiou, Russell Broadbent, Bruce Baird and I, met to discuss concerns about indefinite mandatory detention and its impact on children.
Petro Georgiou had commenced drafting a Private Members Bill to amend the Migration Act. Once the drafting was complete, the group met with then prime minister John Howard to advise their intentions. To avoid the embarrassment of a split on the benches, the prime minister asked for time to speak to his cabinet colleagues.
During the hiatus, the mistaken and unlawful detention of two Australian citizens, Cornelia Rau and Vivian Alvarez Solon, aroused considerable public disquiet and sympathy. Cornelia Rau was erroneously held in immigration detention for 10 months and Vivian Alvarez Solon wrongly deported and “dumped” at the Manila airport in a wheelchair. Inquiries into both cases led to a damning exposé of inadequate care, lack of openness and scrutiny in the system and the pervasive culture of “denial and self justification” within the Department of Immigration.
Public alarm over detainees covertly held indefinitely heightened with the case of Peter Qasim, a stateless person detained for seven years. Qasim’s case became a cause célèbre when it was taken up by prominent businessman Dick Smith. The Sydney Morning Herald revealed the government’s decision to soften its hard line on mandatory detention. Under a headline ‘Free at last, but a prisoner still of his tortured mind’, it disclosed that Qasim would be one of 50 people locked up for more than two years, who would now be summarily released on bridging visas.
Churches, non-government organisations and a growing number of web-based social media commentators exerted growing pressure on government to change the policy. The threat of a private members bill was a crucial element in the government’s turnabout. The government announced that “a child shall only be detained as a matter of last resort”.
The Ombudsman was to review cases of detainees who had been in detention for more than two years and make recommendations about their release. The minister was required to report the recommendations to Parliament within 15 days, but could not be compelled to act on them. Other elements of the changes forced by the backbenchers included an agreement to place time limits on the processing of protection visa applications and offer the existing 4000 refugees on Temporary Protection Visas (TPVs) permanent protection within 90 days.
Winding Forward, Winding Back
In 2007 the Rudd Labor government was elected. As the boats slowed, the new government made good its election promise to dismantle the “Pacific Solution”. It ended TPVs and abolished detention charges. Mandatory detention and ‘excision’ of the migration zones remained firmly in place.
Two years later, boat arrivals bounded from seven in 2008 to 60. A deepening sense of panic gripped the government. A withering attack was unleashed by the Opposition accusing the government of not protecting the borders and encouraging smugglers.
The government suspended processing refugees from Afghanistan and Sri Lanka claiming that the situation in both jurisdictions was evolving and that the “Taliban’s fall, durable security in parts of the country and constitutional and legal reform to protect minorities’ rights have improved their circumstances.” This led to increased periods of detention, overcrowding and outbreaks of violence. Incarcerated children became a resurgent issue.
(read more by clicking the link above)
Thank you too Shoe from me. Sanity. It is hard to stomach some on the blatant provocation from others. I have never, never, understood it but I suspect it comes from a complete lack of empathy.
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Thanks be for the third, Gez. I would have missed it. (Something wonderful about being settled into your new home, you and Helvi have a little time to do stuff for those of us who live harum scarum lives regarding housing and so on… appreciated).
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Thank you Sandshoe,
We hope your home problem gets sorted. We all need a home. A few nights ago, a program brought to light a family of 4 living in one room in America. Thank you also for aiding my plight during the stroppy exchanges last night.
Any of your erudite articles coming?
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In regard to your thanking me, thank you Gez in return for that kind acknowledgement. Someone can only tolerate for so long being bullied though without that impact having its intended effect, however strong. When matters take the turn of others joining in regardless how innocently perhaps because they haven’t recognised the cues of collusion, then the line has been crossed regarding whether the victim will survive it.
Bullying affects so many more people than acts of homicide on the streets. 🙂 Such a sad and serious issue and a practised bully knows what they are doing to the depth of their cunning. Others get drawn in who have different agendas, but nevertheless are vulnerable to that persuasion. I have been very sorry in fact to see you being spoken to in a degrading manner for a very long period of time and that must stop on whatever level it is begun. I am so sorry, Gez.
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Thank you Shoe;
I could not believe what was going on last evening. You are right, it is often a communal thing and rarely practised by a single individual. Here is a link that goes into how to recognize, prevent and make it turn around. The Finnish method ( sorry for the word Finnish) seems to be the system that actually works best.
Have a read;
http://www.rug.nl/news-and-events/people-perspectives/opinie/2011/opinie1_2011?lang=en
Of course the internet is the ideal vehicle to inflict hurt especially combined with total anonymity with the use of pseudos.
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Gez, for quite a while I have been dismantling and re-writing a difficult story. I have had to write a couple of new pages. Today I decided to get someone here to edit it for me. Likely about a week Gez.
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That’s great news and we will all be looking forward to your new story. I remember the last one when you went to Melbourne and met up with Emmjay.
I am often stumped for words or an idea but as I start with the first line or so it gets easier as I amble along. I enjoy doing it.
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…I am sorry a happy face was included in the text. That is an error.
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No worries.
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A couple of mess-ups. 🙂 Now in place to reply to you Gez regarding writing. Your ability to do that is immense. Thomas Keneally made that reference that he started not knowing what he was going to say or write. Once the scene is set, that mood changes of course to a degree but the same holds true of returning each day or to a major story. Getting lost in that imaginative world is a wonderful place to be.l 🙂
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