Howard has worked to 'dehumanise asylum seekers'

Graham Matthews, Melbourne

Prime Minister John Howard's Coalition government has "worked to dehumanise asylum seekers, to use them as a tool in wedge politics", David Ristrom, the lead Victorian Senate candidate for the Australian Greens, told an August 24 public forum organised by Melbourne University's Researchers for Asylum Seekers.

In addition to Ristrom, the forum was addressed by representatives of the Australian Labor Party and the Australian Democrats. The Liberal Party MP for La Trobe, Bob Charles, had also been invited to speak, but following the continuing revelations of Prime Minister John Howard's lies about the 2001 "children overboard" affair, he called in sick.

Victorian Labor Senator Jacinta Collins pleaded "guilty to the Labor Party's introduction of mandatory detention for asylum seekers". She reaffirmed Labor's support for the retention of the mandatory detention system, although she also pledged some sweeteners including the end of the offshore detention regime, and the promise to release all children from detention.

While claiming that the Labor Party in government would "treat people with dignity, civility and fairness", Collins also argued "we need a system that guarantees the security of our country".

Democrats Senator Lyn Allison called on the federal government to abide by its international obligations to provide asylum to those fleeing persecution or possible death. While denouncing the mandatory detention regime, she argued that detention would still be necessary for up to three months in order to carry out health and security checks on asylum seekers.

Ristrom argued that mandatory detention was "cruel and unnecessary", stating that the Greens opposed it. He also outlined the Greens' opposition to the offshore detention regime and forced deportations. "Australia receives only a trickle of asylum seekers every year, so our situation is one where we can afford to be a lot more generous", he said.

In responding to discussion, Collins agreed that the Labor Party "added" to the climate of racism introduced by the federal Coalition government in the lead-up to the 2001 federal elections. She also back-tracked on her promise that the ALP would release children from detention, leaving open the possibility that the children of asylum seekers might continue to be detained, but in some form of "community" detention rather than in detention centres, as favoured by the current Coalition government.

From Green Left Weekly, September 1, 2004.

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From GLW issue 596