The Stump

The world of politics, policy and public life

Nastier refugee stand-offs in our region

November 20, 2009 – 11:52 am, by Andrew Bartlett
Another reminder of how genuine refugees are treated in our region
In amongst all the media and political frenzy regarding the Tamil asylum seekers http://www.blacktownsun.com.au/news/world/world/general/indonesia-backs-down-on-merak-boat-people/1681997.aspx refusing to get off some boats in Indonesia, a much greater and more problematic stand-off has been occurring in Thailand.
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia-pacific/2009/11/2009111845646765272.html
160 Hmong people, originally from Laos, have been kept in a detention centre in Thailand for the past three years.  Despite the UNHCR saying the people have been recognised as refugees, and four countries – Australia, Canada, the USA and the Netherlands – offering to resettle them, the Thai government considers them to be “economic migrants” and proposes returning them to Laos.
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia-pacific/2008/06/20086237276114825.html This report from a year ago gives an idea of the sort of long running abuses in Thailand.  It details thousands of Hmong refugees who have been locked up for years, agreements being signed between the Thai and Laos governments to return the “economic migrants” and refusals by Thai authorities to allow the UNHCR to enter the detention centres to make refugee assessments and determinations.
It is necessary for the Australian government to continue to work with Indonesia and other countries in our region to find workable compassionate approaches to the large number of asylum seekers in the area.
Australia must not be complicit in facilitating human rights violations or mistreatment of asylum seekers and refugees (or unauthorised migrants for that matter), but we should also get out of the habit of turning a blind eye to what other governments in our region are doing.
The more we know about what happens elsewhere in our region, the more obvious it is why refugees would risk their lives and rack up large debts to try to find safety in Australia.

In amongst all the media and political frenzy regarding the Tamil asylum seekers  refusing to get off some boats in Indonesia, a much greater and more problematic stand-off has been occurring in Thailand.

160 Hmong people, originally from Laos, have been kept in a detention centre in Thailand for the past three years.  Despite the UNHCR saying the people have been recognised as refugees, and four countries – Australia, Canada, the USA and the Netherlands – offering to resettle them, the Thai government considers them to be “economic migrants” and proposes returning them to Laos.

This report from a year ago provides a bigger picture of the sort of long running abuses in Thailand. Read More »

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Simon Birmingham talks sense

November 19, 2009 – 1:52 pm, by Bernard Keane

Simon Birmingham is a South Australian Liberal senator and for mine is one of the smartest brains in the Coalition or, for that matter, the Senate, and the sooner the party leadership makes uses of his talents on the frontbench the better.

Last night he rose to speak on the package of CPRS bills and gave a speech that any climate sceptics – should they be genuine sceptics rather than outright denialists – ought to read and ponder.  Birmingham supports his party’s position on the bills and recognises the Government’s cynical timing.

Read More »

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Qld’s CMC, Police & Palm Island

November 19, 2009 – 12:30 pm, by Andrew Bartlett

One of the most telling aspects of the terrible injustices involved in the death in police custody of Palm Islandman Mulrunji Doomagee is that, five years on, there has been no public investigation and report into the roles of various police played in investigating the events leading up to, during and following the death.

It now seems likely that a reportfrom Queensland’s Crime and Misconduct Commission (CMC) into the way police dealt with that death in custody will be finished by the end of the year.  Precisely what is made public and what happens from there is still unknown, but the CMC’s credibility will be stake almost as much as that of the Queensland Police service. 

There have been growing criticisms of a perceived ineffectiveness of the CMC, as well as allegations that elements within the CMC may be too close to the government and the police.  A report today in The Australian that the Parliamentary Crime and Misconduct Commissioner, Alan MacSporran, has “accepted a brief to represent the Queensland Police Service at the second coronial inquest into Doomadgee’s death, to be held in February” will do little to quell those concerns. Read More »

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Updated: Fran goes fact finding

November 18, 2009 – 1:32 pm, by Jonathan Green

Oh dear.

franAt least she kept her teeth in.

Friday update:

franb

Feel the power people. Feel the power.

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Misleading Parliament: care factor?

November 17, 2009 – 4:49 pm, by Bernard Keane

Malcolm Turnbull, it seems, just can’t help himself.  After Question Time yesterday – immediately after -  he called a press conference to accuse the Prime Minister of misleading Parliament over whether the Oceanic Viking deal was “preferential treatment”.

You’d think, after THAT business earlier in the year, that Turnbull, or one of his staff, would have thought to themselves that renewing the claim of misleading Parliament was something, generally, to be avoided.  But Turnbull, as always, seems to have some difficulty with his impulse control.

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The repugnant case of Omar Khadr

November 17, 2009 – 8:22 am, by Greg Barns

No issue symbolised the moral bankruptcy of the Bush Administration’s post 9/11 offensive more graphically than Guantanamo Bay.  And when Barak Obama promised last year to repair the damage done to American prestige because of the Bush Administration’s mistreatment of the detainees at Gitmo, his lofty rhetoric fell on fertile ground.  But last Friday’s package of announcements about a legal fate of a handful of high profile detainees by President Obama’s Attorney-General Eric Holder leaves the distinct impression that the reality has not yet met that elegant rhetoric.

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A good time to be reminded about the universality of the principle of compassion

November 16, 2009 – 11:30 pm, by Andrew Bartlett

Almost exactly a year ago,  I wrote here about an interesting project which sought to use the internet to engage with people of all beliefs from around the world in developing a Charter for Compassion. The process took over a year and included some key ethical and spiritual leaders at some of the pivotal stages. It has now been completed and the final version of the Charter has been released.

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The Heathrow queue for the Eskimos – and the Australians – is getting longer

November 16, 2009 – 2:41 pm, by Shakira Hussein

If memory serves (and Google, on this occasion, does not), Paul Keating once said that it was hard to get sentimental about Australia’s relationship with Britain when you had to queue with the Eskimos at Heathrow while EU citizens sailed straight past you.

Gordon Brown’s recent speech on immigration raises many issues, but so far as Australians are concerned, surely one of them must be “why the hell aren’t we a republic?”

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Lessons from the Traveston dam veto – if you love the bush, then learn the joy of a bush pee.

November 16, 2009 – 2:03 pm, by Shakira Hussein

Well, my summer is looking a whole lot more straightforward since Peter Garrett overruled Anna Bligh, vetoing the Traveston dam project.  The idea of having to camp out near Gympie with a bunch of irrititing hippies really didn’t appeal, but such is my love for lungfish and turtles that I would have gone to any lengths.

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And then there’s Steve Fielding

November 16, 2009 – 1:19 pm, by Bernard Keane

Senator Steve Fielding has revealed today that he was sexually abused as a child. One instinctively feels sympathy and anguish for Fielding, as one does for anyone assaulted by someone charged with their care.

But quite why Fielding felt the need to reveal this today, on the morning when hundreds of representatives of the Forgotten Generation arrived in Canberra to hear an apology, and emotional speeches from Kevin Rudd and Malcolm Turnbull, is a mystery.

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