Border protection fight 'obscene joke'

Issue 

Dick Nichols

Lisa Macdonald, the Socialist Alliance's candidate for the federal seat of Reid, has described the debate between Labor and the Coalition over who has the best "coastal protection" policy as "an obscene joke".

"People smuggling, where the desperate pay tens of thousands of dollars to find refuge from war and persecution, only exists because there is a demand for it. There's a demand because Australia's refugee policy is restrictive, racist and deeply inhumane.

"If the sum total of unauthorised arrivals and applications for asylum in the year 2000 had been allowed in (18,975 people in total), the number of refugees for every 1000 inhabitants of this country would certainly have risen - from 1.25 to 1.26! Yet in Sweden the number of refugees for every thousand inhabitants is 17.7. So what's the big worry?"

Macdonald condemned the ALP's "pathetic" attempt to prove that it is tougher on "border protection". "Instead of exposing Howard's refugee and 'border protection' policy for the fear-mongering, racist and xenophobic sewage that it is, Labor is joining the Coalition in scapegoating the most defenceless people on the planet.

"Instead of idiotic arguments about whether the navy or a coast guard should be sinking the handful of unseaworthy and overcrowded vessels that manage to reach Australian waters, and instead of wasting $400-500 million on 'civilian law enforcement hulls', why doesn't Labor think about a humane refugee policy that eliminates the need for people smuggling in the first place?

"While war, poverty, famine and oppression exist, there will be refugees. Australia is perfectly placed to have a humane and welcoming refugee policy."

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From Green Left Weekly, July 7, 2004.
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