BY JAMES VASSILOPOULOS

CANBERRA — The ACT conference of the Australian Labor Party on July 26 voted to end the ALP's support for mandatory detention of asylum seekers. A number of motions initiated by the Labor for Refugees group were passed unanimously.

The motions included amending the ACT ALP platform to support “processing arrangements that allow asylum seekers to be released into the community once initial health and security measures have been met and oppose mandatory detention of asylum seekers for the duration of their processing”. The motion also called for permanent residence visas for all asylum seekers deemed to be refugees.

While the motion is a substantial step forward compared to current federal ALP policy and practice, there is some ambiguity. Will the “initial health and security measures” be a de facto form of mandatory detention? Point four of the motion does not call for the closure of all refugee detention camps, only the “return of all facilities to public management”.

The conference also passed recommendations to amend the federal ALP platform on refugees. The recommendations included replacing the party's current policy of mandatory detention with “a short and non-punitive initial processing period, wherever possible in the community”, for the purpose of health and identity checks. This recommended period is no longer than one month.

This motion also called for the end of temporary protection visas and an expansion of humanitarian visas for those found not to be refugees but who would face danger if forced to return to their countries.

The ACT ALP branch decided to recommend to the national ALP conference that asylum applicants have the right to be allowed to have “due process and the right of appeal in any processing regime”. Federal Labor MPs recently voted with Coalition MPs to limit asylum seekers' appeal rights.

From Green Left Weekly, August 14, 2002.
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