HUMAN RIGHTS ALLIANCE MEDIA RELEASE:
Prime Minister Julia Gillard's legacy is a poor one - she has the opportunity to move forward and though unlikely to be re-elected at least to remedy wrongs and leave a more pro-social legacy.
Ms Gillard can ensure the release of near 100 Indonesian children imprisoned in Australian adult prisons. I spoke to her in person on July 20 about the children and she has known for a long while. There has been no political leadership, not from the Australian Greens, not from the ALP and not from the Coalition who have allowed these children to languish in adult prisons - this is discrimination and racism.
Ms Gillard has the opportunity to put to rest for good the Nauru "Solution" and all such discrimination and racism. Ms Gillard has the opportunity to end offshore 'processing'.
ALP insiders and ALP parliamentarians have told me the time has come for the ALP to change its ways and that with the aid of the High Court decision, and the Justice French inconsistency put to rest, that the ALP can regain ground and their moral compass by putting to rest various discrimination and racism, and end mandatory detention as we know it in Australia. Apparently if Ms Gillard does not put it to rest, and quickly, there will be a challenge by what remains of the 'left' of the ALP to Ms Gillard. The numbers are being done now by various powerbrokers, and not only in NSW and Victoria however powerbrokers in WA and Qld have been included to topple Ms Gillard - this is her opportunity, whether she is toppled or not, whether she is re-elected or not, to stand up for what's right and not for what may appease the ignorant.
Ms Gillard needs to publicly reject Manus and Mr Abbott's sub-standard offer to circumvent propriety and the honest rule of law by amending the Migration Act and to re-open Nauru.
Nauru was disastrous and should not be revisited. The High Court decison should be respected in its entirety.
Not only had we argued that the Malaysian Solution was unlawful, so is Manus, and Nauru, and so is offshore processing - and the High Court decision shall not be limited to the Migration Act and articles 232 and 233.
Christmas Island should be closed immediately.
The Human Rights Alliance is concerned by various polls and their alleged results as our general understanding is actually that most people are not in favour of offshore processing and generally more and more Australians believe in that more folk should be assisted with resettlement in Australia.
We refute that there is a 'people smugglers model' and that it is a 'business model' - the seeking of Asylum is lawful, there are no smugglers, there are only people who are assisting in the passage of people in their seeking of Asylum, there are no people smugglers or agents who seek out Asylum Seekers, rather Asylum Seekers are seeking out people to assist them with passage. I know of no perceived people smuggler who has a business card or an office. Without people to assist in the safe passage to our shores many folk would be at high risk to various elements and various abuses and various authorities. Many Asylum Seekers walk for instance to Malaysia from Afghanistan for six months and more and from there onwards seek assistance from Indonesia to our shores. This is lawful under the UN Conventions, Protocols and sub-Protocols.
If a High Court challenge was undertaken to Ms Gillard's 'people smuggler business model' her fanciful manifest would be refuted and people assisting other people at their request would be reinforced as lawful, humanitarian and heroic.
Australia is in desperate need of political leadership and it is not provided by the ALP, not by the Coalition, nor by the Australian Greens with their meek and convoluted language - policies thus far and the various silences have been discrimination and racism. The Australian Senate has filled itself with a vacuum of inhumanity, of discrimination and racism and of various disturbing silences, throwbacks to a McCarthy-like era.
Tensions at Curtin, Darwin, Christmas Island, Leonora and Scherger Detention Centres are sky high. People have broken down, there is meltdown.
In 1983 then Australian Universities Student (Guilds) President Julia Gillard's obstinacy and ugly will to power contributed to the demise of the AUS and it was not re-invigorated till 1987 after becoming defunct end of 1983 - Ms Gillard and the ALP are following a similar experience. Julia, you can still leave a legacy that you may be prouder of than what you have achieved thus far.
Gerry Georgatos
Convener, The Human Rights Alliance
CONTACT: 0430 657 309
Comments
THE WEST AUSTRALIAN: by Craig McKeough - Labor's chance...
LABOR'S CHANCE TO SHOW LEADERSHIP ON REFUGEES
A refocus on the humane approach could win the party back lost support, says Craig McKeough
The High Court's rejection of the Federal Government's Malaysia deal on boat people is obviously a devastating blow to a Prime Minister already struggling to assert her authority on the political scene.
But it might also be a golden opportunity for the Labor Party to consider how it managed to find itself in this mess and reassess its approach to the treatment of asylum seekers.
Trying to compete with the coalition has got it nowhere.
Maybe now is the time for Labor to try to rediscover its moral compass and step back from this "race to the bottom" on the issue.
With the High Court killing off the Malaysia option last week and casting real doubt over the entire concept of using other countries as processing points for asylum claims, rather than trying to find ways around the ruling, it must be worth rethinking how we approach this issue.
Labor simply cannot convince most voters that it can match the coalition in the harshness of its treatment of boat people.
So why keep trying?
Those who believe it is necessary to erect some kind of fortress around the continent and banish anyone who tries to breach it, no matter how desperate their situation, will not accept a softer approach.
But there is a significant portion of the electorate that is open to a more human policy.
Many of them are in the Labor Party, including a good number of its Federal MPs.
This has led to a clear split on the issue in the parliamentary party and it will be interesting to see how this group, which includes Fremantle MHR Melissa Parke, responds over coming weeks.
If they find their voice, Julia Gillard could do much worse than listen.
The Liberals had the same sort of problem with compassionate dissidents when they were in power but did a pretty good job of ignoring them.
The Howard government invented the idea of offshore processing 10 years ago and went to extraordinary lengths to ensure that boat people did not get access to the Australian legal system by excising offshore islands from the so-called migration zone.
This denied asylum seekers the right to claim they had arrived in Australia when they were picked up at sea or landed at places such as Ashmore Reef.
These people were sent to Nauru or Manus Island for processing rather than be allowed to set foot on the mainland.
This Pacific Solution, was widely, and rightly, criticised by refugee advocates and human rights groups as being contrary to international refugee law, unjustifiably expensive to implement and psychologically damaging for detainees.
There was also a good deal of discomfort about the idea in middle Australia. In Opposition, Labor railed against this out-of-sight, out-of-mind concept and in the lead-up to the 2007 election it campaigned on a more humane approach.
On winning government, prime minister Kevin Rudd was quick to scrap temporary protection visas and closed the Nauru detention centre, returning all processing to Christmas Island.
The problem it had to face then was that there was a sharp upswing in boat arrivals.
The flow had almost stopped under the Howard rules but the resumption of the people smuggling business quickly posed political problems for the Rudd government. Not because the number of asylum seekers was huge - they were a fraction of those arriving in European countries and far fewer than the unlawful arrivals who simply overstayed their visas - but the dirty game of politics had elevated the issue to a status it hardly warranted.
Labor felt it had to back-pedal as the new wave of boat people started to fill detention centres, forcing the construction of new facilities on the mainland. It listened to the talkback chatter rather than its conscience.
Trying to reach Australia in a rickety boat is a dangerous business. The tragedy at Christmas Island last December where about 50 people died is a shocking reminder of that.
But instead of punishing people who attempt it, the focus should be on tackling the source, or at least in Indonesia where most boats embark.
Labor might regain some of its lost credibility on the boat people issue if it stops competing with the Opposition for a tough-on-boats crown it can never win.
Rather than winning over the people who favour this tough line, it has alienated supporters on the other side of the debate.
Its hopes of being re-elected in 2013, if the electoral term even runs that far, look well and truly shot.
Ms Gillard really has nothing to lose by rediscovering Labor's morality and starting to treat asylum seekers as people who need help rather than a problem that has to be swept away.
Re: HRA MEDIA RELEASE: Numbers being done to topple Gillard ...
http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/politics/skipper-is-going-down-with-ship-2...
JULIA GILLARD IS HER OWN PERSON.
Everyone keeps on writing that Julia Gillard needs to put her convictions on the line and stand up for what she really believes.
Everyone keeps on writing that she is being manipulated by the powerbrokers, the factions and the kitchen cabinets and of course by the internal pollsters.
What an insult to Julia Gillard! I know enough of Julia to know she is her own person. She is part of the machinery, one of the powerbrokers, and others in the ALP have come to trust her because of her views.
I believe that what you see is what you get. Maybe what Julia has put out is what she is about. I don't believe that she wants Asylum Seekers here, I believe that she believes in Mandatory Detention, I believe that the 'people smuggler business model' is one of her ideas, I believe that she doesn't believe age and disability pensioners should getter a better deal, I believe that she is as harsh on our poorest as she claims to be.
In 1983, Julia was the President of the Australian Union of Students, her ugly will for power then and her obstinate views contributed to the redundancy of the Union, which went out of business altogether till 1987. What's happening now to the ALP and the Australian political landscape has not surprised me, and long ago I predicted such a parallel.
Gerry Georgatos
She isn't much chop at all...
She isn't much chop at all.