Laboring over refugee rights

December 11, 2002
Issue 

BY ANDREW HALL

The launch of the revamped Labor Party refugee policy on December 5 has generated a renewed and much-needed debate over the need for a more compassionate refugee policy.

Marketed by Labor leader Simon Crean and deputy leader Julia Gillard as a humanitarian alternative to the policy of the Coalition government, the policy on refugees is grouped with a range of “border protection” measures under the heading “Protecting Australia and protecting the Australian way”. It includes proposals for a new coastguard, million-dollar fines for people smugglers and stationing of more police in Indonesia to smash people-smuggling rings.

The policy includes a US-style green card to crack down on “illegal” workers, essentially a work visa, something which was lobbied for by the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union.

Labor’s new policy pledges to boost aid to refugee-producing countries, without specifying amounts and to the United Nations High Commission for Refugees, but only from $21.6 million to $25 million per year. The return of failed asylum seekers will also be monitored.

The policy summary states: “Labor will maintain the excision of Christmas Island [from Australian immigration zones] in order to pilot the processing regime it will advocate should be adopted globally. Christmas Island will be the prime asylum seeker processing and detention facility.” There is a proposal for 90% of refugee claims to be processed within 90 days.

Furthermore, “Those with claims of merit, who are ASIO security cleared, health cleared and who pose no risks will be able to live in hostel-style accommodation. Christmas Island will have a supervised hostel. Any other supervised hostels required will only be located in regional communities that bid to have one.”

The Refugee Council of Australia has welcomed the new policy. In a press release, president David Bitel said: “At last we have seen a break away from the bipartisan approach to refugee policy that has stultified creative thinking”. He did, however, point out that the changes didn’t go far enough.

Director of A Just Australia, Howard Glenn, enthusiastically welcomed the changes as a big shift in policy, and an indication that “Labor is now going to make this an issue on which they fight the government that breaks the bipartisanship for bad policy”.

Most refugee-rights groups have criticised the new policy as a continuation of bipartisan refugee policy.

The Queensland conveners of Labor for Refugees, a group formed following the last federal election to campaign for the party to adopt a more humane policy on refugees, have criticised it as a missed opportunity which “fails the test of compassion”, and “a policy fundamentally at odds with the views of rank and file members”.

John Robertson and Nick Martin, the two Labor for Refugees representatives on the short-lived ALP refugee policy working party said “in particular the use of punitive language such as 'mandatory detention’, the continuing excision of Christmas Island and the maintenance of temporary protection visas” falls well short of the principles endorsed by state ALP conferences.

ALP parliamentarian Carmen Lawrence, who quit the front bench over the policy, said that the opposition had become a pale imitation of the government.

Greens Senator Bob Brown said the policy would still leave asylum seekers locked up as if they were criminals, with Christmas Island an effective prison camp.

In a statement put out by the Canberra Refugee Action Committee, Phil Griffiths remarked that while Labor was marketing its new refugee policy as humanitarian, it was nothing of the sort. “It is paranoid, repressive and unfair.” At a December 3 rally organised by RAC, Griffiths said: “The new ALP policy bears out all the fears held by the refugees’ rights movement. It includes mandatory detention, a fixation on border protection and a Christmas Island solution to replace the Pacific solution. The ALP is being anti-humanitarian.”

The RAC statement notes that, “Under Labor, there would be no freedom for the 2500-plus asylum seekers still detained by Australia, including those on Nauru and Manus Island, many of whom cannot be returned to Iraq or Iran, but who rot in never-ending detention”.

The border protection rhetoric that much of the policy has been built around, and the reinforcement of Prime Minister John Howard's paranoid racism, have been particularly condemned. “Labor admits that there are virtually no security checks done on the five million people who legally enter Australia each year on tourist visas, and yet refugees are still vilified as a possible threat. Labor admits that as an island nation, “Australia has been comparatively protected”, Griffiths continues, “yet it is planning to set up a massive new coastguard, complete with volunteers, to make sure boats are turned around.”

A December 5 Labor for Refugees media release stated: “This policy, at best, only goes a small way towards meeting the expectations of the rank and file, and will ensure that the grassroots struggle for a compassionate policy continues.”

Sydney Morning Herald journalist Margot Kingston commented on December 3: “Having sold its soul to win, and then losing anyway, refugee policy is central to whether the growing momentum for a permanent split in the Labor Party can be reversed ... Will the remaining progressive members of the ALP stay, or join former members in defecting to the Greens?”

RAC activist Kerryn Williams told Green Left Weekly: “While at face value the new refugee policy seems to indicate that the refugee-rights movement and Labor for Refugees have had a minimal impact, the deep-going crisis within the ALP is a reflection of the very real impact that the movement has had over the past few years. I don’t think that change will happen in one step. It will take patient and persistent campaigning

“Let’s hope Labor for Refugees members refuse to be bought off with this pathetic policy, and maintain, along with all refugees’ rights supporters, the fight for a genuinely humane Australian policy.”

From Green Left Weekly, December 11, 2002.
Visit the Green Left Weekly home page. 

You need Green Left, and we need you!

Green Left is funded by contributions from readers and supporters. Help us reach our funding target.

Make a One-off Donation or choose from one of our Monthly Donation options.

Become a supporter to get the digital edition for $5 per month or the print edition for $10 per month. One-time payment options are available.

You can also call 1800 634 206 to make a donation or to become a supporter. Thank you.