Sarah Stephen
Federal Labor leader Mark Latham won endorsement for his "tough but fair" policy towards refugees when the ALP's 2004 national conference voted on January 30 to reject the amendments put forward by supporters of Labor for Refugees.
Widely billed by the corporate media as a compromise and a "softening" of its policy on refugees, Latham's policy is no different from the very partial compromises made under his predecessor, Simon Crean, at the end of 2002. Like Kim Beazley and Crean before him, Latham is a strong defender of mandatory detention, a policy first introduced by Labor in 1994.
The conference endorsed a policy which involves releasing children from detention; fast-tracking the processing of claims, with 90% processed in 90 days; tougher penalties for people smugglers; returning detention centres to public sector management; a coast guard to intercept boats carrying asylum seekers; and an end to the "Pacific solution" processing of asylum seekers on Manus Island and Nauru. However, a Labor federal government would retain the Coalition government's excision of Christmas Island from Australia's migration zone.
The parliamentary Labor Party's refugee policy proposals were supported by 58% of the conference delegates.
By contrast, every state Labor conference across the country during 2002 and 2003 endorsed Labor for Refugees' call for a more humane refugee policy, including limiting mandatory detention to determining asylum seekers' health, identity and security risk, the abolition of temporary protection visas and an end to the "Pacific solution", including a reversal of the excision of Christmas Island.
Why, then, did the national conference vote not reflect this rank-and-file discontent? Much was made by Labor spokespeople of the fact that this national conference was its largest ever, with 400 delegates, more than double the number at past conferences, and with more rank-and-file participation.
However, according to a list drawn up by Coalition industrial relations minister Kevin Andrews, 85% of delegates were either union officials, MPs, Labor councillors, ALP officials, staffers or former staffers or failed candidates.
Delegates voted largely along factional lines. Most of the so-called Left faction supported Labor for Refugees amendments, with the notable exception of deputy leader Jenny Macklin and front-benchers Julia Gillard and Martin Ferguson.
NSW Labor Council secretary John Robertson, who has worked to carve out a role for himself as a spokesperson for Labor for Refugee over the past two years, initially seconded the Left's motion but withdrew following pressure from his right-wing faction.
ALP national president Carmen Lawrence, who resigned from Crean's front bench a year ago, largely in protest against Labor's refugee policy, was vocal in her condemnation of the policy during conference debate.
She told delegates that they were "being asked to replace a truly Labor Party policy with a small facsimile of Howard's policy".
"What we are being asked to endorse is the brainchild, in some respects, of the most reactionary prime minister this country has ever seen", Lawrence said. "The Australian people cannot be ignored; they need to be persuaded."
In an interview on the ABC's 7.30 Report on January 30, Lawrence expressed her disappointment at the outcome of the debate, but was quick to defend the progress that had been made: "We can say this is a hell of a lot better than what the government has put forward. I think the important distinction is that Mark Latham uses the language of conciliation. He uses the language of compassion. The government is really stuck in a very rigid and cruel policy. We are improving it gradually."
The January 31 Australian editorialised that "with [Latham's] compromise policy on asylum seekers passing conference yesterday, this issue will quietly drop from view".
Labor for Refugees co-convenor and conference delegate Nick Martin told GLW: "The outcome is disappointing, because the vote doesn't reflect the sentiment of the broader rank and file of the party". He said that "refugee supporters in the party won't give up on the issue, but will continue to organise in the branches to change policy further".
Labor is still "too gutless to condemn Howard's policy for what it is. If you allow someone to use something as evil as racism, and don't stand up against it, it's a betrayal of the population", said Bradley Sims, one of the founders of Action for Albany Afghan Refugees, which is campaigning for permanent
residency for 60 Afghan asylum seekers living in Albany on temporary protection visas
Katrina Heckendorf, co-convener of Sydney's Free the Refugees Campaign (FRC), told GLW that the refugee policy adopted by the ALP conference was "bitterly disappointing, and shows that while Labor for Refugees tried to do what they could, the Labor leadership isn't listening".
FRC activist Ruth Ratcliffe, who spoke at a protest outside the ALP conference on January 29, told GLW: "For Labor for Refugees to describe the policy decision merely 'disappointing' flabbergasts me. It was so much worse than that. Not only did it nullify two and a half years of work that Labor for Refugees has done to change ALP policy, the policy represents a tragedy for the tens of thousands of asylum seekers who will be affected.
"Labor for Refugees people need to make a choice about whether they put their commitment to compassion for refugees before their allegiance to the ALP. They should throw their lot in with the refugee movement and not with the party."
From Green Left Weekly, February 4, 2004.
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