dreamer_easy (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
dreamer_easy) wrote2005-06-17 08:12 am
dreamer_easy) wrote2005-06-17 08:12 am
Entry tags:
Refugees
Words go through a natural process of losing their intensity: we are no longer terrified by the terrible, nor awestruck by the awesome. The word "terrorist" has clearly reached the same point:
"There is an arrogance in the thinking by a few individuals who are at odds with the vast majority of the parliamentary Liberal Party and the vast majority of the Coalition party room to hold the Government to ransom on this. If you spit the dummy because the vast majority of people in your own party won't agree with you and you, in effect, behave as a political terrorist, well, I think you actually lose credibility." - Victorian Liberal MP Sophie Panopoulos
(Readers from countries where elected representatives are not expected to toe the party line on pain of punishment might find this particularly bizarre.)
On to the news: Rau inquiry says the "culture" of DIMIA has to change; the PM makes counter-offers to the rebel backbenchers.
Rau report damns department culture. "Transparency" and "accountability" are also words often leached of their meaning - generally by people who have no intention towards either - but the draft report calls for both, as well as independent arbitration. (An op-ed by Gerard Henderson gives damning examples of the department's work at its worst.) Given that the government has just honoured the department head with the Order of Australia, there is some doubt as to whether anything will happen, although the Minister has asked her staff for ideas, as well as making it easier for detainees who can't be deported (for now, anyway) to be released. However, she still may prevent the report's public release, in part or in full.
The article also mentions Mr Howard's counter-offers to thepolitical terrorists backbenchers whose proposed bill would massively change mandatory detention: faster processing and alternative detention for families with children. Anything would be an improvement, but I think the MPs should push for the lot: "releasing those who have been detained longer than 12 months, freeing families with children, giving those on temporary protection visas permanent residency and introducing automatic judicial reviews." It should be remembered that those aren't privileges; they're rights, which the government legally has no power to take away from anyone. (An ngo report on children handed the UN this week points out Australia's continuing breach of the Convention on the Rights of the Child.)
Given the government's rigid hardline stance on refugees over the last nine years, that it is considering any changes at all is exciting and provokes hope.
In other news, about 50 Chinese immigration detainees in Australia were held incommunicado and interrogated by Chinese officials.
"There is an arrogance in the thinking by a few individuals who are at odds with the vast majority of the parliamentary Liberal Party and the vast majority of the Coalition party room to hold the Government to ransom on this. If you spit the dummy because the vast majority of people in your own party won't agree with you and you, in effect, behave as a political terrorist, well, I think you actually lose credibility." - Victorian Liberal MP Sophie Panopoulos
(Readers from countries where elected representatives are not expected to toe the party line on pain of punishment might find this particularly bizarre.)
On to the news: Rau inquiry says the "culture" of DIMIA has to change; the PM makes counter-offers to the rebel backbenchers.
Rau report damns department culture. "Transparency" and "accountability" are also words often leached of their meaning - generally by people who have no intention towards either - but the draft report calls for both, as well as independent arbitration. (An op-ed by Gerard Henderson gives damning examples of the department's work at its worst.) Given that the government has just honoured the department head with the Order of Australia, there is some doubt as to whether anything will happen, although the Minister has asked her staff for ideas, as well as making it easier for detainees who can't be deported (for now, anyway) to be released. However, she still may prevent the report's public release, in part or in full.
The article also mentions Mr Howard's counter-offers to the
Given the government's rigid hardline stance on refugees over the last nine years, that it is considering any changes at all is exciting and provokes hope.
In other news, about 50 Chinese immigration detainees in Australia were held incommunicado and interrogated by Chinese officials.