CPD has released A New Approach: Breaking the Stalemate on Refugees & Asylum Seekers, a report which comprehensively critiques Australia’s refugee and asylum policies and finds they … more
Prominent Australians urge political leaders to break stalemate on refugees & asylum seekers
Australia needs a circuit-breaker in our treatment of people seeking asylum from war and persecution. On the tenth anniversary of the MV Tampa’s rescue of 438 asylum seekers from their distressed vessel Palapa 1, Australia’s asylum and refugee policy is still sadly characterised by human tragedy, political opportunism, policy failure and great cost. People seek asylum here have been the subject of an increasingly contentious public and political discussion. A toxic debate has polarised large … more
Playing the Populist Card Again
The proposal of Tony Abbott to revive the Pacific Solution and reinstate temporary protection visas for asylum seekers has been rightly described by Petro Georgiou as … more
Coming Waves: the new environmental refugees
The number of people projected to be displaced by environmental degradation by the year 2050 is expected to exceed 150 million[i]. To place that figure into perspective, the latest refugee numbers issued by the US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants total 13.6 million. Despite this potential for suffering, one significant obstacle prevents international cooperation – consensus. There is no general agreement on the definition or scope of the problem. Currently, no global treaty or compact … more
Defending Australia? More like boxing at shadows
Australia has a new defence minister in John Faulkner, but what our nation needs is a new way of thinking about defence. The Defence White Paper released by the Rudd Government in April revealed a defence establishment still locked into a Cold War mentality. Its huge commitment to arms spending looks like a plan designed for a mid 20th century "hot" war, rather than the kinds of small wars Australia is currently fighting, and the … more
We need leadership that appeals to our ‘better angels’: John Menadue
Fear of the foreigner, the outsider and the person who is different is as old as human history itself. This fear is so easily exploited. Leadership is essential to win the case for compassion in responding to asylum seekers while ensuring continued government control of entry to Australia. If Ben Chifley had responded only to populist prejudice, his government would not have accepted Jewish refugees after WWII. Malcolm Fraser would not have allowed large-scale Indochinese … more
Deportees’ fate shows there’s no solution in the Pacific
Advocates of justice for asylum-seekers and refugees were justifiably relieved when the Government was forced to withdraw its proposed amendments to the Migration Act – amendments that would have seen any asylum-seeker arriving by boat in Australia being deported to Nauru to be processed. However, few people realise that the win was only partial. The 'Pacific Strategy‘ remains largely intact, with many of Australia's northern islands still excised from our migration zone, forcing asylum-seekers who … more
Problems in the Pacific: Who You Gonna Call?
It is possible to address threats of conflict in our Oceanic backyard without military might but this doesn’t seem to have occurred to Prime Minister John Howard. His prediction that our destabilised and failing Pacific neighbours are likely to descend into further chaos in the next decade was accompanied by his announcement of a $10 billion boost in expenditure on the armed forces. The problem with the Howard government’s strategy is its failure to recognise … more