Writer
Peter Hughes
Peter Hughes is a Fellow of the Centre for Policy Development. He had a long career in the Commonwealth Department of Immigration and Citizenship, retiring as Deputy Secretary in 2011. He was awarded the Public Service Medal in 2005 for outstanding public service in the development of policies and programs to increase citizenship, multicultural harmony and the settlement of refugees.
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Australia has always found a way to bring in people from conflict zones
Australia has always found a way to bring in people suffering in conflict zones – when it wants to. There are well-established procedures that have worked effectively for decades between the immigration authorities and the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) to make it happen safely Continue reading »
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Labor’s immigration record and the zombie portfolio
Given the catastrophe they inherited from the Coalition Government, Labor’s immigration record over two years is actually quite good. Huge improvement is still required. They will remain seriously hampered by the Home Affairs portfolio construct and must eventually restore a freestanding Department of Immigration, Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs. Andrew Giles has been unfairly criticised for Continue reading »
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Immigration removal legislation: put away the sledgehammer
The High Court decision in the ASF17 case removed the apparent driver for the government’s sledgehammer immigration removal legislation. There is little evidence that the legislation would work as intended. A sledgehammer is not much use for a problem which is more akin to undoing a couple of tight screws. The government should drop the Continue reading »
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Sledgehammer immigration removal legislation
The government’s new legislation represents a sledgehammer approach to twin immigration removal problems – non-cooperation by people who don’t want to be removed from Australia on the one hand and non-cooperation by their country of citizenship on the other. These problems are quite tricky, but they are not new. Alternative approaches are needed. Continue reading »
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Reviving Australian Citizenship: What the government needs to do
Australian Citizenship should be revived as a positive unifying element in a cohesive multicultural society. The Australia Day citizenship ceremony controversy is just a sideshow. The real issue is the completely unacceptable waiting times for processing Australian citizenship applications. The Abbott/Turnbull/Morrison government trashed the good work of previous Coalition and Labor governments by pursuing regressive Continue reading »
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Reflections on the new migration strategy
The government’s new migration strategy is a commendable attempt to restore some shape to immigration policy and to deal with pressing short, medium and long-term policy problems. A massive implementation effort is needed to make it work. It comes at a time of a pathetic level of public discourse on immigration issues. Institutional change is Continue reading »
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Use of immigration detention needs to be dramatically curtailed
The use of immigration detention in Australia has expanded well beyond its original intended purpose. It has become a political tool, a convenient proxy for dealing with issues that should be dealt with in other parts of government and a vehicle for delivery of immense cruelty. There was a certain inevitability that the High Court Continue reading »
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Offshore refugee processing funding allegations: How did we get here?
The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age have published serious allegations about millions of dollars of Australian government funding for Offshore Processing Centres finding their way through contractors to bank accounts controlled by South Pacific politicians. This comes on top of a history of criticism by the Auditor-General on how providers were selected and contracts Continue reading »
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Parkinson immigration review: very good as far as it goes
The 190 page Parkinson Immigration Review provides a very good blueprint for the future, considering the limitations placed on it by its terms of reference and timeline. The government has circulated a “Migration Strategy” document for consultation picking up broad concepts in the review’s recommendations. There is much more work to be done to decide Continue reading »
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Direct access to Australian citizenship for New Zealanders is a good thing
The Albanese government decision to restore direct access to Australian citizenship for New Zealanders living here is a good thing. It defuses a social time bomb and removes an irritant in Australia-New Zealand relations. Continue reading »
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How to go about achieving better immigration policy and decision-making
It helps to apply all the lessons of the past correctly when considering learnings from a recent High Court decision about the use of personal Ministerial intervention powers under the Migration Act Continue reading »
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No basis for temporary protection visa scare mongering
Opening up access to permanent residence for long stay refugees on temporary visas is right and inevitable. The decision will not set off a major new surge of maritime asylum seekers. The Coalition and their supporters have selective memories. Temporary protection visas were never a deterrent anyway. Continue reading »
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The Australian immigration system is broken. Who knew? Who cared?
Mainstream media organisations apparently had neither the expertise nor the desire to recognise that the system was broken. Continue reading »
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Peter Hughes: Albanese is right to give New Zealanders a fairer go
The new directions that Prime Minister Albanese has foreshadowed to make life easier for New Zealanders in Australia in relation to citizenship, deportation and voting are the right way to go. Continue reading »
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Fixing Immigration: five things an incoming Labor government could do
Labor, if elected, has a big job ahead of it in fixing the immigration shambles that the Coalition has created in nearly 9 years of office. Continue reading »
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Long-term immigration detention has again become a pointless exercise in cruelty
The Howard government released long-term detainees into the community, but the current Coalition government refuses to do so for political reasons. Continue reading »
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The Sri Lankan family – just a case of bloody mindedness. A repost from 2019.
We await further operation of Federal Court processes before the future of the Sri Lankan family being held on Christmas Island is finally known. In the meantime, it’s worth reflecting on why the government has chosen to take such a hard line on this family. Continue reading »
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Migrants: how can we make THEM more like US?
In a crisis, the Coalition government thinks that migrants need to jump through higher hoops. Continue reading »
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The Sri Lankan family – just a case of bloody mindedness
We await further operation of Federal Court processes before the future of the Sri Lankan family being held on Christmas Island is finally known. In the meantime, it’s worth reflecting on why the government has chosen to take such a hard line on this family. Continue reading »
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PETER HUGHES The Coalition Government’s immigration shambles Part 2: What an incoming Labor government could do
The Abbott/Turnbull/Morrison government will go down as the worst Coalition Government in history in its handling of immigration. This is how an incoming Labor government might go about dealing with the shambles it will confront. Continue reading »
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PETER HUGHES. The Coalition Government’s immigration shambles Part 1
The Coalition Government is once more in its element screaming at Australians that only they can save us from hordes of maritime asylum seekers. But look at the record! Continue reading »
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PETER HUGHES. Citizenship for “them” and citizenship for “us”
There is great irony in the fact that the citizenship weapon which the government so recklessly aimed at migrants ended up blowing up in the face of its own parliamentarians. Continue reading »
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PETER HUGHES. Citizenship changes: poisonous and pointless
The government’s proposed changes to the requirements for Australian citizenship are both poisonous and pointless. They are bad public policy and should be rejected by Parliament. Continue reading »
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PETER HUGHES. Citizenship Test Mark II – How much juice can you squeeze out of an orange?
It seems that Coalition governments have developed a habit of squeezing the citizenship “orange” for political advantage when there are some community concerns about migrants. Last week’s announcement by the Turnbull Coalition government, at a time of poor government performance in opinion polls, of a “toughening” of the Australian citizenship test for migrants has a Continue reading »
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PETER HUGHES. Losing the plot on immigration policy
If governments choose to make immigration policy based on populism, expect an increase in human suffering…… Continue reading »
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TRAVERS McLEOD, PETER HUGHES, SRIPRAPHA PETCHARAMESREE, STEVEN WONG, TRI NUKE PUDJIASTUTI. Developing a regional refugee framework.
September has seen a surge of international summits. First came the G20 in Hangzhou, then ASEAN and the East Asia Summit in Vientiane, plus the Pacific Islands Forum in Pohnpei. And, on consecutive days this week, the United Nations in New York hosted a summit on refugees and migrants, followed by US President Barack Obama’s Continue reading »
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PETER HUGHES. Who is running the show?
A new narrative. Why Australian immigration policy needs a positive approach With Pauline Hanson taking a hard-line on immigration in the Senate, it’s time for the government to change its tune or risk relinquishing the debate. It’s time the Australian government put together a positive narrative for Australian immigration policy. Continue reading »
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PETER HUGHES. Manus and Nauru – time for the government to be creative
This is a repost of an earlier article by Peter Hughes on 28 April 2016. The Papua New Guinea (PNG) Supreme Court decision and the announcement by the PNG Prime Minister that Manus will be closed only bring forward the inevitable – the Australian government has to find a way to get the current Continue reading »
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TRAVERS McLEOD, PETER HUGHES, SRIPRAPHA PETCHARAMESREE, STEVEN WONG, TRI NUKE PUDJIASTUTI: Rohingya refugees and building a regional framework to manage refugee flows.
Part 1. The Andaman Sea refugee crisis a year on: what happened and how did the region respond? The Andaman Sea crisis a year ago catalysed important policy developments on forced migration in Southeast Asia. Part one recaps what happened, and how the region responded. In part two, we discuss what’s happened since the crisis, Continue reading »
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Travers McLeod, Peter Hughes, Sriprapha Petcharamesree, Steven Wong, Tri Nuke Pudjiastuti. The Bali Process can do a lot more to respond to forced migration in our region.
The Bali Process on People Smuggling, Trafficking in Persons and Related Transnational Crime will hold a full ministerial meeting in Bali this Wednesday. The meeting will bring together ministers from 45 member countries for the first time in three years. The global context for the meeting is the current levels of displacement. Sixty million people Continue reading »
