Human Rights
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‘Racists aren’t welcome here: how we kicked a racist passenger off the bus.
A nice story from The Guardian ‘Our better angels’ . See link below. John Menadue http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/aug/19/racists-arent-welcome-here-how-we-kicked-a-racist-passenger-off-the-bus?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other Continue reading »
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IAN WEBSTER. Malcolm Turnbull and homelessness – reaching mentally ill people
This week our PM, Malcolm Turnbull, was admonished when he gave $5 to a homeless man in Melbourne. He was sorry if people thought he should not have done this. He said, “I felt sorry for the guy”….”there but for the grace of God go I.” George Orwell wrote after being ‘down and out’ Continue reading »
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PETER GIBILISCO. Some key ideas for the next generation of disability activists.
1. Meritocracy Meritocracy is a belief that seems to me to still be alive and well in the senior management of disability support. It also seems to drive many aspects of public policy, particularly when appeals are made to “equal opportunity”. Advocates of a meritocratic approach to disability policy are still assuming that the Continue reading »
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Migration experts say it is unlikely closing camps on Manus and Nauru islands would re-start boats. We are beyond that point.
See link below – article by Ben Doherty in The Guardian, 16 August 2016. It includes an interview with me, Peter Hughes and others, on the need to act quickly to process in Australia, the detainees presently held in Manus and Nauru. https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2016/aug/16/after-the-nauru-files-how-can-australia-go-about-ending-offshore-detention Continue reading »
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JOHN MENADUE. Tony Abbott now admits that he was wrong in opposing the Malaysian Arrangement.
If only the Greens and many refugee advocates would also admit that they got it wrong. They allowed the perfect to become the enemy of the good. My strong conviction for several years is that the Malaysian Arrangement – it was not a Malaysian Solution – would have been an important building block in Continue reading »
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FRANK BRENNAN. Time to defuse Nauru and Manus Island time bombs
On the weekend, I joined Robert Manne, Tim Costello and John Menadue in calling for an end to the limbo imposed on proven refugees on Nauru and Manus Island. I think this can be done while keeping the boats stopped. I think it ought be done. Appearing on the ABC 7.30 program last Thursday afterThe Continue reading »
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ARJA KESKI-NUMMI. Our Devil’s Island
The Guardian recently ran a story regarding its Freedom Of Information request on boat turn backs, the subsequent denial of material, and its appeal to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) to review the FOI decision. At some point during the AAT hearing the Guardian found itself locked out of part of the hearing on Continue reading »
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ROBERT MANNE, FRANK BRENNAN, TIM COSTELLO & JOHN MENADUE. A solution to our refugee crisis
This article was posted in today’s The Age. There are two powerful arguments about the plight of the refugees dying a slow death in the offshore processing centres Australia has established and which it maintains on Nauru and Manus Island. The supporters of the present policy argue that we cannot bring these refugees to Continue reading »
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SPENCER ZIFCAK. Counter-terrorism and human rights.
I am presently in Paris. Along with many other countries, France faces a terrorism threat. France is grappling with the problem of how democracies can best handle threats of terrorism. In light of that I am reposting an earlier article from the Policy Series, by Spencer Zifcak, on human rights and combatting terrorism. John Menadue Continue reading »
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MUNGO MacCALLUM. Malcolm Turnbull and indigenous affairs.
If Malcolm Turnbull did not know it before, he certainly should now: before you stomp your way into Aboriginal politics, it is wise to first don the emu-feather sandals of a trained Kadaitcha man. The area is fraught with uncertainty and sensitivities which are not always apparent to the outsider; whitefella politics are relatively Continue reading »
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FRANK BRENNAN SJ. Refugees – John Howard could do it. Why not Malcolm Turnbull?
My quandary remains: if John Howard was able to keep the boats stopped while closing Nauru and Manus Island, why can’t Malcolm Turnbull? If John Howard was able to accept New Zealand’s offer to resettle some of the caseload why can’t Malcolm Turnbull? I just don’t buy the line that the people smugglers have Continue reading »
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Culture and Religion, Human Rights, Immigration, refugees, Politics, Religion and Faith, World Affairs
DALLY MESSENGER. A letter to Malcolm Turnbull and Bill Shorten concerning refugees.
There is some talk of cooperation so, living in hope, I am emboldened to write to both of you. Only by you both working together can this criminal behaviour cease. There are far better ways to stop people smuggling than imprisoning people in third world jails without charge or trial. Continue reading »
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PETER YOUNG. Speaking of Freedom: Human rights and mental health in detention.
Peter Young is a member of Doctors for Refugees who have launched a High Court challenge against the Secrecy Provisions in the Border Force Act which states that an ‘entrusted person’ who discloses protected information can face up to two years in prison. I am reposting below an earlier article that Peter Young contributed to Continue reading »
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JIM COOMBS. “Circle” Incarceration
After the revelations this week, it is trite to say that the criminal justice system is failing the Aboriginal people of Australia. One significant reason for this is the exclusion of the Aboriginal community from the process. One “reform” in the process over the last decade or so is “circle sentencing” which allows a Continue reading »
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FRANCIS SULLIVAN. Economic Inequality is a Wound on our Nation: Can It be Healed?
The wash up from the Federal election echoes that from after the Brexit vote in the UK – voter disenchantment and protest. Commentators suggest this comes from electorates where the “old economy” still holds sway. Where jobs are tenuous and basic concerns on health and education are front of mind. Others say that the Continue reading »
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A war on women. Protection denied, abuse condoned on Nauru.
the news from Manus and Nauru gets worse by the day. Inhumanity is imposed in our name. Nauru and Manus are unsustainable. I have yet to meet anyone who will admit that what is happening is right or defensible. See link below ‘Protection denied, abuse condoned; women on Nauru at risk’. This searing story is Continue reading »
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TIM SOUTPHOMMASANE. Bamboo ceiling and race relations.
Many of us have good reason for thinking that the state of our race relations is under challenge. We frequently see stories about people being racially vilified on public transport, and our recent public debates are punctuated by controversies about race. We know racism is a reality in contemporary Australian society. About 20 per cent Continue reading »
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BILL AND BARBARA CLEMENTS: Refugees and round-ups.
The Paris Metro station of Bir Hakeim, not far from the Eiffel Tower, serves both the Australian Embassy and a monument that was erected in 1994 to commemorate the mass round-up of Jews, brought to the Velodrome d’hiver (an indoor cycle track known as the Vel d’hiv) which formerly occupied the site. The Australian Embassy Continue reading »
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SPENCER ZIFCAK. PNG Supreme Court Trumps Detention on Manus Island and Australia’s High Court too. It is regrettable that Australia does not have a similar Bill of Human Rights
In the latest legal saga to beset the Government’s troubled offshore processing program, the Supreme Court of Papua New Guinea declared that the mandatory detention of asylum seekers from Australia on Manus Island was unconstitutional. The Court held that the detention of some 900 men on Manus violated the right to liberty guaranteed by PNG’s Continue reading »
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Our better angels.
Wasim Buka was sentenced recently on two charges of people-smuggling. He came to Australia as a boat person and has settled in Australia. Unfortunately, two of his brothers were executed in Iraq and one sister, following in his footsteps to Australia, drowned along with her husband and five children in the waters between Australia and Continue reading »
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‘Refugees don’t self-harm because of me, Peter Dutton, they self-harm because of you.’
One of the many disappointments of Malcolm Turnbull’s prime ministership is that he reappointed Peter Dutton as Minister for Immigration and Border Protection. This disappointment is reinforced by his attempt to blame refugee advocates rather than his own policies for the self-harm of asylum seekers. Sarah Smith, a supporter of refugees, tells of the heartbreak Continue reading »
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Kerry Murphy. Blaming refugees.
Blaming instances of self-harm by refugees and asylum seekers on ‘refugee advocates’ or the undeserving asylum seekers is not a new political tactic. Back in 2001 then Minister Ruddock was interviewed by Four Corners about the problems of self-harm by asylum seekers in detention, especially in Curtain, Woomera and Port Hedland detention centres. Journalist Debbie Continue reading »
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John Zaw. No end in sight to Rohingya suppression in Myanmar.
The hardline Buddhist Arakan National Party (ANP) that holds a majority of seats in Myanmar’s religiously divided Rakhine State has promised to fight any attempts to grant up to 1 million stateless ethic Rohingya citizenship. For the new National League for Democracy (NLD) government in Myanmar, the first civilian administration in the country in more Continue reading »
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Greg Wilesmith. Guantanomo Bay: Obama’s big failure.
Good news on Gitmo. There are just 80 prisoners left in their cramped, high security cells in a small, far off, scrubby peninsula on Cuba. That’s about 160 fewer than when Barack Obama became president in early 2009 promising to close Guantanomo within a year. So not exactly Mission Accomplished! as President Bush trumpeted after Continue reading »
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Peter Gibilisco. A Synergistic Approach to Disability
Here is my proposal for a Dictionary definition of Synergy: the interaction or cooperation of two or more organizations, substances, or other agents to produce a combined effect greater than the sum of their separate effects. “the synergy between artist and record company” or disability support workers and people with disabilities with high support needs. Continue reading »
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Frank Brennan. Cheque book solution on asylum is unconstitutional
A bench of five justices of the Supreme Court of Justice, the highest court in Papua New Guinea, has unanimously ruled that the detention of asylum seekers on Manus Island is unconstitutional. The successful applicant in the case was Belden Norman Namah, the PNG Leader of the Opposition. Unlike the Australian Constitution, the PNG Constitution Continue reading »
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Cavan Hogue. Saudi Arabia involvement in 9/11 attack!
The United States has long supported one of the most repressive regimes in the world. It invaded Iraq where women were able to do anything men could (which wasn’t much admittedly) but not Saudi Arabia where women are kept in subjection. It also ignored the fact that Saudi Arabia is home of the Wahabi brand Continue reading »
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‘We are the forgotten people’; the anguish of Australia’s invisible asylum seekers.
Nearly 29,000 asylum seekers are in Australia on temporary ‘bridging visas’. These people may be free from detention but – with many denied education, healthcare and the right to work – they remain locked in desperate poverty and with no idea what their future holds. See link below to an article in The Guardian Australia. Continue reading »
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Kieran Tapsell. Bishop Ronald Mulkearns: Blaming the Foot Soldier
The “Nuremberg defence” takes its name from the claim by Nazi officials at the Nuremberg War Crimes Tribunal that they should be acquitted because they were following “superior orders”. In one of the most significant judgments in international law, the Nuremberg Tribunal held that following superior orders in the case of crimes against humanity is Continue reading »
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Cameron Douglas. Thailand and the military junta – an update.
Thailand’s military government got almost all it wanted in the country’s draft constitution, which will now be put to the people in a referendum on August 7. The next four months, however, will be a rough time for Thailand: the release of the draft was accompanied by a warning from Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha that Continue reading »
