BY LYNNETTE LITTLE
PORT AUGUSTA — Port Augusta is known as the "crossroads of the outback"; a town of 17,000 people, located where highways join from the north, with many travelling south from Alice Springs and west from Perth. Like other towns throughout Australia, Port Augusta is attempting to revamp its image and present itself as a positive and progressive town.
Our social vision statement includes the mission to create and sustain a safe and vibrant community, which is also harmonious, unique and vibrant.
While a lot of people in this town are politically conservative, there is a small and committed group fighting for change. The Rural Australians for Refugees (RAR) group, to which I belong, as well as church and other concerned groups are slowly and convincingly sharing the message about the appalling situation for our neighbours in the Baxter immigration detention centre.
We have a cross-section from the community in our group. More of our Indigenous community members are seeking information about mandatory detention of asylum seekers. We have recently had an enquiry from one Indigenous woman about how she could go about teaching detainees about her culture.
On the whole, the RAR group has had more successes than failures. We have managed to get children from the detention centre out on a number of excursions and we are trying very hard to build bridges with immigration department and Australasian Correctional Management (ACM) detention centre staff.
Our local council has given permission for detainees to use local facilities like the swimming pool and library, and there is much discussion at the moment about some of the Baxter young people attending local schools.
Our RAR group's priority is to facilitate visiting detention centres. This is a matter of urgency for the well-being of detainees, especially single men. We have a member that attempts to help visitors from Adelaide.
As a group, we have dedicated our time and resources at the local level, where working in partnership instead of confrontation has been successful. We have found that a lack of consultation and negotiation does not work well in this community.
We have passion — for me fuelled by the children in Baxter who are so courageous given all the adversity surrounding them — to get on with the business of networking, taking opportunities to present or talk to others about Baxter and the fears of the detainees.
Port Augusta's mayor of more than 20 years, Joy Baluch, meet many Mandaean families in Baxter and they themselves won her over with their dignity, love and simple hopes for the future.
Things are changing in Port Augusta. Most of the people in our community are just like many other Australians who have read and heard only the fearful propaganda on our TV and newspapers. It is the human face and personal contact that will change the opinion of many in our community. That is why we prioritise getting people to come to Baxter and meet the detainees.
On principle, Port Augusta RAR supports the protests planned for the Easter weekend, outside the Baxter detention centre in Port Augusta. We believe that there are two sides to this struggle: helping those in detention to cope and manage their life in Baxter and the broader political struggle to change refugee policy in Australia. As people living in Port Augusta we are in a good position to maintain day-to-day action and intervention.
We absolutely recognise the importance of the various refugee action collectives' planned actions. We are concerned, however, about the consequences for detainees. As a security measure, during and following the protests, all contact with detainees will be lost, and from that point onwards we will be powerless to intervene on their behalf at all.
We are also concerned about our relationships with the detainees, ACM, the immigration department, the local council and the local community being negatively affected. We fear that all gains we've made may be lost as a consequence of the actions. If this is the case, the people who lose will be those already in powerless positions: the detainees.
[Lynnette Little is a member of Rural Australians for Refugees in Port Augusta. For more information, phone 0421 9835 595.]
From Green Left Weekly, February 12, 2003.
Visit the Green Left Weekly home page.