Labor to guard the coasts

BY SARAH STEPHEN

Opposition spokesperson Con Sciacca has stated that the latest influx of asylum seekers showed the government's approach was not acting as a deterrent.

"For all their bravado and chest-beating, Prime Minister John Howard and immigration minister Philip Ruddock have failed miserably to stem the numbers of asylum seekers arriving on our coastline", he told the August 22 Australian.

The same newspaper reported Sciacca's solution two days later: a special paramilitary coastguard. Sciacca said that patrol boats should be making more use of powers to warn off vessels before they reached Australian waters.

Refugee advocates have rejected the proposal as yet another example of bipartisan hard-heartedness.

John McGill, the Socialist Alliance convenor in Adelaide, commented, "A coastguard could play a great role, I think, in making sure our waters aren't fished out by rapacious fishing companies, but I don't think they have any legitimate role in turning people back to certain suffering and possible death."

"Sciacca seems to think that some asylum seekers are 'sneaking in', arriving on Australia's shores undetected", McGill continued.

"Most asylum seekers who come by boat are arriving at Christmas Island. They're not trying to slip into Australia. They want to become part of Australian society. They're hoping for freedom and compassion.

"It's incredible that the Labor Party is proposing even more draconian measures than the Coalition."

From GLW issue 462