Once again, like in decades past, Australia is becoming a country many of us simply don’t want to recognise: A modern-day Oskar Schindler would be jailed for up 10 years under the Rudd government’s proposed crackdown on people smuggling, lawyers say. In largely unscrutinised changes, backed by the opposition, the government is introducing new criminal…
Showing all posts tagged Kevin Rudd
Why is Australia really moving forward with net filtering?
A strong editorial in today’s Sydney Morning Herald on the Australian government’s proposed internet censorship regime (destined to both fail and embarrass): Stephen Conroy, the Communications Minister, is feeling the heat over his attempt to censor the internet for Australians. The latest critic is the US government. Conroy, of course, is used to criticism. Internet…
Tamils vote for independence — and will vote against Labor
My following article appears in today’s Crikey: Australia’s Tamil community want an independent homeland in Sri Lanka. And they want respect from a Federal Government here that is now denying visa applications to their people. Last weekend saw thousands of Australian Tamils vote on the Vaddukoddai Resolution in a show of support for an independent…
Australia once again uses refugees as punching bag
After the Australian government announced the re-opening of the remote Curtin detention centre, these suggestions are completely supported: Human rights barrister Julian Burnside QC, who was an outspoken opponent of the Howard government’s asylum-seeker policies, said the Rudd government was following the same policy trajectory and urged people to punish Labor by voting for the…
Rudd government treats refugees as political footballs
Welcome to Australia, a Federal government that wants to be “tough” on asylum seekers, clearly makes policy on the run and is increasingly reminiscent of the previous Howard regime. Brutes. The only major party in Australia that makes humane sense is the Greens and people remember (look at the UK, where Liberal Democrat leader Nick…
Australia is violating its moral and legal code over asylum seekers
Human Rights Watch slams the Australian government over its latest refugee stance in a letter to Immigration Minister Chris Evans: Dear Mr. Evans, We write to you to express our deep concerns that changes to Australia’s asylum processing system announced on April 8, 2010 violate Australia’s obligations under the 1951 Refugee Convention and the 1967…
Does the Rudd government care what happens to refugees when sent home?
A helpful reminder how the Australian government is failing legally, morally and politically by refusing to listen to legitimate claims for refugee status by Sri Lankans and Afghans: Immigration Minister Chris Evans has rationalised this suspension of due legal process on the unsustainable grounds that in three months the situation in both Sri Lanka and…
Send aslyum seekers back to Sri Lanka and have blood on your hands
Unsurprisingly, Australia’s latest refugee policy is thankfully slammed as a meaningless sham in an election year, with little care for the lives likely to be shattered: To the roomful of Sri Lankan refugees, little has changed for those left behind since they made their perilous voyage in a wooden boat to Christmas Island last year.…
Sri Lanka and Afghanistan are not safe, better remind the Australian government
This is truly shameful and obvious political pandering. If the Australian government seriously believes that both Sri Lanka and Afghanistan are relatively safe for its citizens, perhaps some ministers should visit the war-torn nations and enjoy the local hospitality for a while. Without a security detail: Australia’s decision to stop processing all new immigration claims…