I launched my book Profits of Doom at Curtin University in Perth on 29 November to a packed house (more details and photos here… and audio is here). The focus was on Australia’s privatised immigration detention system.
Dr Caroline Fleay from The Centre for Human Rights Education (CHRE) introduced me with a generous speech that I re-publish below:
Profits of Doom – Perth Book Launch
Centre for Human Rights Education
29 October 2013
Caroline Fleay
Curtin University
Book Launch Introductions
It is my pleasure to introduce Antony Loewenstein.
Antony is an independent journalist, blogger, photographer and documentary film-maker. He… has written and co-authored a number of best-selling books, including My Israel Question… and The Blogging Revolution. He has written for The Nation, Huffington Post, The Sydney… Morning Herald, Haaretz, and is now a weekly columnist for The Guardian. He has also… appeared on a range of television current affairs programs on the ABC, the BBC, Al Jazeera… English, and a range of other media outlets. And, of course, he is the author of Profits of Doom.
I first met Antony at the Perth Domestic Airport, very early in the morning, in November… 2011. Antony had been persistently emailing during the second half of 2011 as he knew… through some mutual acquaintances that Linda Briskman and I were visiting the Curtin… immigration detention centre, and he wanted to come along for the purposes of his research.
So up we flew to Broome and then hired a car for the 2 hour drive to the detention centre… which is about 50 km from Derby.… I spent many long hours with Antony during the following four days and I learned a few… things about him as a journalist and as a person. One thing that I did observe was his skill in… finding out information from those who work within the detention system. But the thing that… impressed me most about him was his empathy that was clearly evident as we sat and talked… with the few people detained in that large centre that we were allowed to meet with. Antony’s… response to what he witnessed, and to what he was told by the people we visited about being… in detention for many months, I think speaks volumes about his understanding of the issue.
And this is reflected in the book we are very happy to be launching in Perth tonight.
Antony’s book, Profits of Doom, provides a much needed spotlight on the operations of some… of the private corporations that make large profits in industries that emerge from government… outsourcing. And they do so in an environment where the details of much of their operations
One of these corporations, Serco, is a big player in Australia and two of the chapters in the… book explore their role in the immigration detention industry. One of the big problems of… privatisation in immigration detention is that it deepens the system’s lack of transparency.
The involvement of private corporations in this area not only enables governments to expand… immigration detention, it also helps to obscure what is going on within detention centres.Commercial-in-confidence clauses that apply to contracts between the government and… private operators mean that it is exceedingly difficult to access information in relation to costs… and other operational matters, as Antony highlights in his book.
Accountability issues around who is responsible for what happens within immigration… detention centres become more opaque under a system of privatisation. For example, in the… midst of a rooftop protest and following the death of someone detained at the Villawood… immigration detention centre in 2010, Serco told media reporters to contact the Department… of Immigration for comment. In turn, the Department said they could not comment in any… detail on Serco’s operations.
Profits of Doom helps to lift a lid on the secrecy of Serco and its operations within… Australia’s detention network. For one thing, the book highlights the hefty profit rates that… Serco is making out of its immigration detention contract.
But Antony’s writing also allows us to get some understanding of the remote sites of… detention at the Curtin airbase in the north of WA, and on Christmas Island. His writing… helps us to get a sense of the people detained within those electrified fences, and those… responsible for enabling this government policy. He highlights how this privatised system of… imprisonment harms the people it detains. And he highlights how it harms some of the staff… who become traumatised by what they witness, and what they have become complicit in.
As Antony expresses it: “desert prison camps are not normal”. Indeed, imprisoning people for… indefinite periods of time in any site of detention is not normal.
Antony’s book is a compelling read and I highly recommend it.
Please welcome Antony to talk more about his book and these issues.