John Menadue

John Menadue is the Founder and Editor in Chief of Pearls and Irritations. He was formerly Secretary of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet under Gough Whitlam and Malcolm Fraser, Ambassador to Japan, Secretary of the Department of Immigration and CEO of Qantas.

John's recent articles

John Menadue. The new compradors and the China-Australia Free Trade Agreement

Compradors are sometimes described as those who help a foreign country exploit their own. I was reminded of this when I read that the ALP Caucus had compromised its concerns over jobs for Australians and was prepared to waive the China-Australia Free Trade Agreement through the parliament with only a diluted list of demands as the AFR put it. If this agreement proceeds, Australian workers are likely to be much more vulnerable. Not surprisingly the President of the ACTU, Ged Kearney said that this is about Australian jobs so we will keep fighting for those jobs. No wonder the...

Nicholas Reece. Falling behind in the innovation stakes

Malcolm Turnbull has promised a new innovation policy for Australia by Christmas. Bill Shorten has pledged to be a jobs prime minister for the new economy. For the first time in a long while, the political rhetoric matches a genuinely huge national policy challenge. In the past 15 years, there have been more than 60 reports on Australia's national innovation system. They all broadly reach the same finding: Australia suffers from a failure to turn public research into commercial outcomes, to generate higher levels of business research and development, to adapt new technologies and skills, and to participate effectively...

Good Samaritans in Greece

We have been told in Australia that asylum-seekers are so inhuman, that they would even throw their children overboard; that they are all 'illegals' and akin to criminals; and that they bring disease and wads of cash. Fortunately, helpers in Greece have taken no notice of this characterisation of asylum seekers. See the link below of Samaritan's Purse helping asylum seekers arriving by boat in Greece. John Menadue http://video.samaritanspurse.org/the-rising-tide/

John Menadue. The infrastructure mess and wasteful road spending.

Former prime minister Tony Abbott said that he planned to be the infrastructure prime minister. There was little to show for it apart from wasteful spending on roads. He said that the Commonwealth should 'stick to its knitting' and not get involved in funding public infrastructure. His focus was on roads. Our new prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull has spoken at the weekend of exploring radical road and rail funding, and has announced Commonwealth funding for a light rail project on the Gold Coast. Last week Bill Shorten announced a $10 b. infrastructure plan which even suggested giving Infrastructure...

Misha Coleman. Open Letter to Julie Bishop on Sri Lankan war crimes.

8 October 2015. Dear Ms Bishop Thank you for co-sponsoring the UN Human Rights Committee resolution negotiated by the Sri Lankan Government, which will hopefully provide some answers and finality to the mothers of 146,679 missing people, through the establishment of a domestic war crimes panel. You'll know that these Buddhist, Hindu, Muslim and Christian mothers are stilllooking for their children, their husbands, and they still long to re-inhabit their houses and their land. (The resolution is essentially the response to the investigation which was undertaken by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights into atrocities...

Bob Kinnaird. 750,000 temporary residents with work rights.

The recent Fairfax/ABC Four Corners reports exposing widespread exploitation and wage abuse of overseas students and other visa workers in 7-11 stores, horticulture and other sectors have been justly applauded as outstanding examples of investigative journalism. Their impact has been immediate, forcing 7-11 to set up an independent investigation panel chaired by Alan Fels and 7-11 chairman Mr Russ Withers to resign. The latest Fairfax report was titled The Precariat (SMH, 3 October 2015). The term combines 'precarious' and 'proletariat' and was coined by British economist Guy Standing. It means broadly workers reliant on transitory and insecure work,...

Nauru and the Philippines

Three days ago, on 6 October, I posted a story 'Nauru and the Philippines'. That story carried an unconfirmed report that the Australian government was negotiating with the Philippines government for the transfer of 600 asylum seekers in Nauru to the Philippines. Since then there have been several reports confirming the thrust of this story, even though there has been no confirmation from the Philippine or the Australian government. These reports indicate that the discussions are proceeding, but are not yet concluded. The detail of the arrangement will be very important, particularly the residential status of any asylum seekers...

Nicholas Rowley. Cleaning up the mess on climate policy.

It is one of the rarely considered consequences of the sad story of Australias national policy response to climate change, that many of our finest public servants have sadly wasted years of analysis and effort to dutifully serve the demands of their political masters. More than ten years ago analysis by Ken Henry under then Treasurer Peter Costello recommended a national emissions trading scheme. The advice was ignored. In 2006 John Howard asked Peter Shergold, then Head of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, to examine the most effective ways to achieve the emissions reductions required. He too...

Sean Gorman. Goodes is gone but the confronting truth remains.

For many AFL fans, the last week in September is the time of the year where we reflect on a season that could have been and dream of next year. One thing we can be sure of is that we wont see Sydney Swans champion Adam Goodes on a football field again. This saddens me. I think the reason for this is the sense of unfinished business. What should have been the rounding out of a great career or even the saddling up for one last crack in 2016 now has a full stop on it. But even in...

Wasteful costs in health.

Following the ABC Four Corners program on health costs in Australia, there have been a number of very good follow up articles. The first, in The Conversation on 29 September is by Ray Moynihan 'Costly and harmful: we need to tame the tsunami of too much medicine'. https://theconversation.com/costly-and-harmful-we-need-to-tame-the-tsunami-of-too-much-medicine-48239 The second, in the AFR on 5 October, is by Neil Soderlund, Sam Stewart and Jan Willem Kuenen is entitled 'Why overtreatment is costing Aussies $30 billion per year and how to fix it'. http://www.afr.com/opinion/why-overtreatment-is-costing-aussies-30-billion-per-year-and-how-to-fix-it-20151005-gk1ktn

John Menadue. Nauru and the Philippines!

The Nauru government has announced that the remaining 600 asylum seekers in the islands immigration detention centre will be processed over the next week. This comes after a delay of two years and remarkably slow processing. Why this welcome change? What is afoot? We know that the Australian government is engaged in bilateral negotiations with several regional countries in trying to relocate asylum seekers. In this context I have seen an unconfirmed report that the Australian government is in discussions with the Philippines government to take asylum seekers from Nauru. If this speculation is confirmed, much will depend on...

Ranald Macdonald. The ABC and a Call to Arms.

A CALL TO ARMS Why this Country needs you to act. That is the title to my talk today and my exhortation to you all. The latest figures show over 400 ABC staff already removed from the ABC, as we edge towards its 500 target. The recent change in Prime Minister-ship has NOT changed expectations at the ABC or at SBS. The situation continues to be dire. I will try and explain why. It is terrific to see so many of you here to this Annual General Meeting of Friends of our ABC. It is a...

Mark Carney and climate change - an historic speech

The following are extracts from a speech given by Mark Carney, The Governor of the Bank of England at a Lloyds of London dinner on 29 September 2015 He outlines how climate change is a huge financial risk, particularly for investments in unburnable fossil fuel assets. He points out that the vast majority of these assets could be stranded and that the window of opportunity to address climate change is finite and shrinking The media has described this as a milestone speech See linkto full speech and references. Extracts follow John Menadue The tragedy on the...

Libby Lloyd. Coming to grips with our domestic war

For many reasons there is currently a much greater interest in the issue of domestic and family violence. This derives from increased media attention, the significant increase in intimate partner homicides (64 so far this year), the vastly improved police and legal response, constant revision and improvement of state and federal laws, as well as the appointment of Rosie Batty as Australian of the year. There has been a recent enquiry in Queensland and there is currently a Royal Commission in Victoria. Weve had plenty of enquiries. How much more discussion on the topic do we need? We can already...

John Menadue. The government just does not get it on Free Trade Agreements.

I hope readers are not getting tired that I have said many times that the government continues to exaggerate the benefits of bilateral FTAs, most recently with Japan, Korea and China. With so little to show after two wasted years - increased debt, increased deficits, and not 'stopping the boats' despite telling us of success a thousand times - it is perhaps inevitable that the government will cling to small improvements in trade. But the gains are small. In the AFR on 30 September 2015, Bill Carmichael, former chairman of the Australian Industries Assistance Commission, said We will undoubtedly gain...

Why the Rich are so much Richer in the US

Nobel Prizewinner Joseph E. Stiglitz has been at the forefront of the debate in the US and elsewhere about growing inequality. In a recent review in the New York Review of Books, James Surowiecki comments on three recent books by Stiglitz. He says: The numbers are, at this point, woefully familiar: the top 1% of earners take home more than 20% of the income and their share has more than doubled in the last 35 years. The gains for people in the top 0.1%, meanwhile, have been even greater. Yet over that same period, average wages and household incomes in...

John Menadue. Murdoch is losing his touch.

Two weeks before the fall of Tony Abbott, Rupert Murdoch tweeted Abbott, far the best alternative. The Liberal Party ignored his tweet and chose Malcolm Turnbull. Rupert Murdochs declining influence is becoming plain to see. At the last SA state election, the Adelaide Advertiser backed the Liberal Party. The Liberal Party lost. At the last Victorian state election, the Herald Sun backed the Liberal Party and the Liberals lost. In Queensland, the Courier Mail backed the Liberal-National Party at the last election and there was a record swing which tipped the LNP out of office. ...

Why fighters are quitting ISIS.

The International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation and Political Violence at Kings College London points to the ways that many thousands of recruits who journeyed to Iraq and Syria may now be regretting their decisions. The more defectors speak out, the more the ISIS cause will suffer. The ICSR Report Executive Summary follows. John Menadue. Executive Summary Defectors from the so-called Islamic State (IS) are a new and growing phenomenon. Since January 2014, at least 58 individuals have left the group and publicly spoken about their defection. They represent a small fraction of the many disillusioned fighters who...

John Menadue. The smoko continues.

I have posted many blogs on this subject how we have failed to equip Australia for our future in Asia. We just do not have the Asian literacy and skills we need for our future in the region. See blogs. The smoko continues (3 December 2014) and Will the new Colombo Plan work? (12 August 2014). Our business sector talks endlessly about the need to improve productivity in Australia particularly through labour market reform. At the moment the business campaign is to reduce penalty rates. Yet the business sector has failed comprehensively to equip itself with the...

Climate Change and Refugees.

We have had a wake-up call about how Western and particularly US policies have destabilised the Middle East with the resulting exodus of refugees. Half of the Syrian population has either fled or been displaced within their own country. Climate change in the Middle East is adding to the problem. This is examined in a report by Jaime de Melo for the Brookings Institute on August 24, 2015. He comments: The disintegration of states resulting from political, ethnic and religious conflicts are the proximate causes of this migration surge (from the Middle East), but evidence from the new climate-economy...

Saudi Arabia doesn't 'do' refugees.

Saudi Arabia has shown that it is possible to accommodate three million people for the Haj. See link below. But it is unwilling to provide any sanctuary for refugees from Syria. Syrians must apply for a visa or work permit to enter Saudi Arabia. Under this visa/permit system many Syrians have entered Saudi Arabia, but it is overwhelming for the benefit of obtaining cheap labour. None of the Gulf States have a domestic policy on refugees and none are signatories to the UN Convention on the Status of Refugees. The experience of almost all refugees is that if they...

David Charles. Innovation, Disruption, Growth and Jobs of the Future

What a difference a day makes to so many things including innovation. Immediately prior to the replacement of Tony Abbott by Malcolm Turnbull the Commonwealth Government barely had innovation, to say nothing of digital disruption and start ups, on its radar. Its major achievements in the area of funding for innovation were mostly notable for cutting and rebranding existing programs. To be sure they had responded to worthy ideas from the Business Council of Australia to identify and support five industry growth centres but the level of support - $188.5 million over 4 years - is modest and expectations...

Refugee Diary.

It is one thing to endure the terror of barrel-bombing by the Assad regime and the barbarism of ISIS in Syria. But this is only the beginning of a harrowing trek by Syrians in their journey to safety and freedom in Germany and elsewhere.Verica Jokic,an ABC journalist gave a compelling account on Radio National on Thursday 24 September 2015, of the trek from Syria to safety. Her eye for the small detail brings home the plight of asylum seekers much more effectively than all the statistics. John Menadue. See her story on the link below: http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/drive/on-the-ground-following-syrian-refugee-crisis/6798898

John Menadue. Transfield, Manus and Nauru

Transfield and its subcontractors are profiteering from lucrative contracts to run detention centres on behalf of the Australian government on Manus and Nauru. All the indications are that there is widespread abuse and oppression particularly on Nauru. It is a disgrace. Present policies on Manus and Nauru are unsustainable yet Minister Dutton remains as Minister for Immigration and Border Protection. If the government will not address the problems then shareholders and clients of Transfield have a duty to act on behalf of all people and particularly children and women that are being abused in our name. The...

Dean Ashenden. Could Turnbull give a Gonski?

Until last week, Gonskis last hope and an increasingly promising one was a Labor victory in 2016. Now, that hope has dimmed, but another has appeared. It would make political, ideological and policy sense for the Turnbull government and its new education minister, Simon Birmingham, to go back to Gonski. The story so far. Gonskis inquiry was commissioned in 2010 and reported in 2012. It tackled three major problems in schooling: the dysfunctional arrangements for funding three sectors in three different ways by two levels of government; the consequently chronic antagonism between sectors and interest groups; and...

Tom and Rosie support the Syrian Refugees.

Two young students from Prouille Dominican School at Wahroonga have raised nearly $4,500 for Syrian refugees. It started as a street stall in front of their house. It led to community support. It is a lovely story - worth reading. See link below. John Menadue https://unhcrpersonalchallenge.everydayhero.com/au/help-the-syrian-refugees-with-tom-and-rosie

Bob Kinnaird. China FTA and a diplomatic appointment.

As the governments exaggerated claims of economic benefit and job creation from ChAFTA are increasingly exposed, the lead DFAT negotiator on the China FTA is set to be appointed the next Australian Ambassador to China. According to reports in the Australian Financial Review and Crikey, Ms Jan Adams DFAT Deputy Secretary was nominated before the ousting of Mr Abbott to take up the Beijing position this December. The reports say the new Prime Minister Mr Turnbull is likely to endorse the appointment of Ms Adams, who apparently has the backing of Foreign Minister Bishop and Trade Minister Robb. ...

Harold Levien. Solving our Housing Problem.

The new Turnbull Coalition has the opportunity to rewrite the economic policy, or lack of it, of the previous Abbott-Hockey Government. This greatly exacerbated Australias housing problem and was pushing Australia into recession. The Reserve Banks Governor Stevens recently explained that repeated interest rate reductions were attempting to stimulate the depressed economy. He suggested the Government could take advantage of record low interest rates to borrow for infrastructure spending to provide the much needed economic stimulus without further interest rate cuts. (Statistics show infrastructure spending had dramatically fallen since the Abbott Government came to Office.) There was no response. ...

Lynne Strong. Climate change and farming.

Farming in partnership with nature. I live in a very special part of the world.The view from my front verandah has rolling green hills to the left, the ocean to the right and in front of me - the ocean.You can understand why I call it paradise. Our family has been farming in this region for over 180 years. Our family dairy farm is located in steep rainforest country at Jamberoo in NSW. Every three weeks for 6 hours of the day the view gets even more special when these magnificent cows graze in the front paddock. These...

Ian Marsh. Revolving Prime Ministers.

As has been widely noted, Malcolm Turnbull is our fifth prime minister in as many years. You have to go back to the 1901-1909 pre two-party period for a roughly similar record. Then it was six leaders in seven years. But the analogy is only superficial. The protagonists - Barton (briefly), Watson (briefly), Deakin, Reid (briefly) and finally Fisher rose and fell based on their ability to create parliamentary majorities for particular measures. The parties Free Traders, Protectionists and Labor differed fiercely. They represented the two variants of nineteenth century liberalism and twentieth century collectivism fault-lines...

Kenneth Roth. The European refugee crisis is on of politics not capacity.

European leaders may differ about how to respond to the asylum-seekers and migrants surging their way, but they seem to agree they face a crisis of enormous proportions. Germany's Angela Merkelhas called itthe biggest challenge I have seen in European affairs in my time as chancellor. Italian Foreign Minister Paolo Gentilonihas warned thatthe migrant crisis could pose a major threat to the soul of Europe. But before we get carried away by such apocalyptic rhetoric, we should recognize that if there is a crisis, it is one of politics, not capacity. There is no shortage of drama in thousands...

Arja Keski-Nummi and Libby Lloyd. Resettling Syrian and Iraqi Refugees: A Program for Government-Community Action

Australia has one of the best refugee resettlement systems in the world. So said United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres some years back. We have achieved this reputation not by good luck but because successive Australian governments have understood that early intervention and support in the settlement process are fundamental to long term successful integration. Australians have welcomed the announcement from our government that Australia will accept 12,000 Syrian and Iraqi refugees with a focus on resettling women, children and families who have sought refuge and are in camps in Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey. This means that...

Walter Hamilton. Japanese Sleepwalking

Defying public protests and opinion polls that show most Japanese oppose the move, Prime Minister Shinzo Abes Liberal Democratic Party and Shin-Komeito ruling coalition are pressing ahead with legislation to nullify the nations constitutional ban on overseas military action. The so-called right of collective defense law is being voted out of the committee stage of the Dietthus ending formal debateand will soon go to the full parliament where Abe has the numbers to push it through. There have been rowdy scenes in the corridors and chambers of parliament as angry Opposition members have tried to prevent the gag being...

John Menadue. Slogans vs Facts.

In my post of 16 September, I referred to the continual exaggeration over the benefits of Free Trade Agreements. There has been quite a pattern of this type of exaggeration with slogans rather than facts. One example of slogans and one-liners has been the Abbott government's claim that it 'Stopped the Boats'. This is just not true, but the media keeps repeating the myth and the slogan. I will be writing further about that early next week. The most recent example of exaggerations and slogans has been in respect of the China Free Trade Agreement and Free Trade...

Bruce Kaye. Refugees in Australia and the Good Samaritan.

When I was a teenager a famous preacher of the day, Dr Gordon Powell, was the minister at St Stephens Presbyterian Church Macquarie Street Sydney. I recall hearing some of his sermons and in particular a sermon from a series of sermons he preached on the Hard Sayings of Jesus. He remarked at the beginning of the series that the really hard sayings of Jesus were not those that were complex or oblique. Rather the hardest sayings of Jesus were those whose meaning was all too clear. The difficulty was in how to work out those sayings in everyday life....

The Exaggeration over Free Trade Agreements.

I have posted many blogs in the last couple of years concerning the Free Trade Agreements with the Republic of Korea, Japan and China. I have pointed out that the years of negotiation of these agreements occurred under the Rudd and Gillard governments. The Abbott government gave the agreements the final touch. The other issues that I have raised is that the Abbott government has seriously exaggerated the benefits of the FTAs. Andrew Robb has referred to them as 'turbo-charging' the Australian economy. That is nonsense but unfortunately the exaggerated nonsense continues even with the new Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull....

John Menadue. Turnbull and Abbott

Bill Shorten aside, most Australians will welcome our new Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull. He offers a more rational, humane and consultative style of leadership. His main problem will be how to reconcile his own progressive views on such issues as climate change, a republic and gay marriage, with the hard-heads in the parliamentary Liberal party. As Laura Tingle in the AFR put it, Tony Abbott has no-one but himself to blame. He saw politics as war. He never made a sensible transition from a pugnacious and effective opposition leader to a national leader. He broke promise after promise. His...

Rod Tiffen Lord Leveson, your country needs you, again.

Two events in the past week show the importance of the Leveson Inquiry reconvening to complete its second report. The Leveson inquiry was set up by British Prime Minister David Cameron in July 2011 at the height of the phone hacking scandal centered on Rupert Murdochs News of the World newspaper. Lord Justice Levesons inquiry became, as he said in his report, the most public and the most concentrated look at the press that this country has seen. The proceedings provided many riveting moments as in nine months of oral hearings 337 witnesses gave evidence, including victims of phone...

"U.S. should bear blame for European refugee, humanitarian crisis"

Disastrous intervention by the US has been the cause of many major refugee flows including the current flows out of the Middle East. The people's Daily published an interesting article on this subject on 7 September. The article refers to refugees from Syria, Lybia, Iraq and Afghanistan. It could have added that one of the major refugee flows since WWII was triggered by the disastrous intervention in Vietnam. See article from People's Daily below. John Menadue   Xinhua Commentary:U.S.shouldbearblameforEuropeanrefugee, humanitariancrisis By HuYao (Xinhua)09:10, September 07, 2015 BEIJING,Sept. 5 (Xinhua) --Whenmillionsofpeoplearoundtheworldweretakenaghast bythepicturesof drownedthree-year old Syrian boy Aylan...

Josef Szwarc. Resettling an additional 12,000 refugees.

The Government has announced that Australia will resettle an additional 12,000 refugees who are fleeing the conflict in Syria and Iraq. http://www.pm.gov.au/media/2015-09-09/syrian-and-iraqi-humanitarian-crisis This note publishes the statement with some comments about various aspects. Our focus will be on those most in need the women, children and families of persecuted minorities who have sought refuge from the conflict in Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey. Comment: There were reports of political and other commentators suggesting that people of Muslim faith should not be selected. At a press conference about the decision to take in the additional refugees, the Prime Minister...

John Menadue. Refugees, the community and civil society

It has been thrilling to see the warm response of many people, and particularly the Germans, to refugees fleeing from war-torn Syria and other countries. Over ten million people have been forced to flee their homes in Syria. Pope Francis has appealed to every Catholic parish, religious community or sanctuary in Europe to take in a family of refugees, saying that he would set the example by hosting two families in parishes inside the Vatican. With 20,000 or more Catholic places in Europe, that could provide sanctuary for 200,000 refugees on the basis of 10 Syrians per parish. ...

Ross Burns. Syria and Persecuted Minorities.

The 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, the international legal instrument to which Australia was an original signatory, contains a clause making clear that 'The Contracting States shall apply the provisions of this Convention to refugees without discrimination as to race, religion or country of origin'. It therefore seems curious that at least three Ministers, most notably the Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, have made statements that echo the wording that Australia's new program to take 12,000 Syrian refugees under UNHCR auspices announced on 9 September would give preference to 'persecuted minorities'. While on the surface...

Ian Marsh. What wrong with Australias political system?

Most readers of this piece will not need lessons about the power of economic incentives. They know that efficient price signals can channel investment into productive assets and these same signals will drain funds from unconstructive pursuits. The same process more or less works at individual levels. Both good and bad performance is demonstrated by similar calculations. In turn these calculations draw on a variety of other metrics prices, volumes, demand, supply, growth estimates and so forth. Readers also know these numbers are reasonably reliable because they come from credible institutions. Thus markets are reasonably free and undistorted....

Peter Dixon and Maureen Rimmer. What's really at stake if the China FTA falls through.

Earlier this month Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott sounded a warning on the impact to Australias economy if the recently signed China-Australia Free Trade Agreement were to fail. In a statement, Abbott said: If Bill Shorten and the Labor Party try to reject the China-Australia Free Trade Agreement they will be sabotaging our economic future and they will be turning their back on one of the greatest opportunities our country has ever been offered. Economic modelling for the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade by the Centre for International Economics (CIE) demonstrates the gains of the agreement will be...

Rod Tucker. The NBN: why it's slow, expensive and obsolete.

The Abbott Coalition government came to power two years ago this week with a promise to change Labors fibre to the premises (FTTP) National Broadband Network (NBN) to one using less-expensive fibre-to-the-node (FTTN) technologies, spruiking its network with the three-word slogan: Fast. Affordable. Sooner. But with the release in August of the 2016 NBN corporate plan and in the light of overseas developments, it is clear that the Coalitions broadband network will not provide adequate bandwidth, will be no more affordable than Labors FTTP network and will take almost as long to roll out. With the benefits of...

Peter McNamara. Are all Australians just 'Bad Samaritans', or is it just the media?

I always thought Australians were good Samaritans, welcoming people from all backgrounds, all races, all religions, to their rich and prosperous nation. It belies belief to see the media reporting that Australian Christians, including Catholic Archbishop Fisher, say that preference should be given to Christian refugees from war-torn Syria. The Australian does not ring true with its leader: Fleeing Christians should go to front of queue - archbishop above Archbishop Fishers photo (The Australian online, Sept 8 2015, Tess Livingstone) http://www.theaustralian.com.au/in-depth/europes-migrant-crisis/fleeing-christians-should-go-to-front-of-queue-archbishop/story-fnws9k7b-1227516995573 This reported urging is ignorant of the fundamental principles of refugee resettlement under the International Convention...

John Menadue. A one-off increase in the humanitarian program rather than a safe haven is now possible.

In this blog several of us have advocated a safe haven arrangement, as was the case for the Kosovars, to meet the present Syrian refugee crisis. It was then clear that the government was not going to do much at all. That has now changed. The government has been reluctantly dragged along by state premiers, the backbench and the community generally. A part of the change has been the heart-rending photos of the young toddler lying lifeless on a beach in Turkey. The safe haven for Kosovars was predicated on quick processing and movement to Australia for a short...

Klaus Neumann. Stepping up to the plate.

Angela Merkel said last week 'There will be no tolerance towards those who question the dignity of others.' Prime minister Tony Abbott is in favour of increasing the number of Syrian and Iraqi refugees allowed to resettle permanently in Australia. But when he announced on Sunday that Australia would step up to the plate, he didnt have in mind an increase of the overall number of visas for refugees, who currently make up just 3 per cent of migrants accepted into Australia each year. More Syrian refugees would simply mean fewer refugees from other countries, including those in our...

David Isaacs, Alanna Maycock, The Senate Report on Nauru.

On 31st August 2015, the Senate finally tabled its lengthy report on conditions at what is euphemistically called the Regional Processing Centre in Nauru (http://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate/Regional_processing_Nauru/Regional_processing_Nauru/Final_Report). The RPC is in reality a prison camp where people live indefinitely in tents, their applications are not processed for over a year, and they are kept in ignorance of when if ever the applications will be processed. It is possible to appeal against a rejected application, but not against one which sits in limbo. Will the report make any difference? We know the Government will ignore its recommendations because the Minister for Immigration...

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