Labor Party members discuss refugee policy

BY IGGY KIM

SYDNEY — "If it wasn't for the Tampa, we'd have a Labor government today", former NSW premier Neville Wran told a May 23 Labor for Refugees forum which heard calls for an end to the government's present policy towards asylum seekers.

There is considerable grassroots support within the NSW Labor Party for changing the party's refugee policy. Delegates are expected to present a motion to the state Labor conference on May 25-26 calling for a new policy.

Echoing Wran's concern, NSW Legislative Council president Meredith Burgmann criticised Labor's silence on the refugee issue during the federal election campaign, called for an end to the "Pacific solution" and temporary protection visas and advocated full access to social services for resettled refugees.

Burgmann and Wran also called for a return to what they saw as the party's grand traditions of multiculturalism and internationalism.

"It was Labor that broke the bipartisan position on the White Australia Policy", Burgmann noted — but made no mention that it was Labor which first introduced mandatory detention for asylum seekers in 1992.

As for mandatory detention, she did not advocate its complete elimination, but rather "compulsory processing defined in terms of weeks, not months or years", which would still take place under lock and key.

From Green Left Weekly, May 29, 2002.

Visit the Green Left Weekly home page.

From GLW issue 494