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Julia Gillard said 'people like my own parents who have worked hard all their lives can't abide the idea that others might get an inside track to special privileges'. Managing similar perceptions in East Timor, where there is a tide of resentment against Australia among parts of the population, will be a challenge.
Julia Gillard insists that the centre in East Timor centre would be properly 'run, auspiced and structured'. For the Australian Government to ensure that such a centre respects the human dignity of asylum seekers will be difficult. Similar arrangements with Indonesia were not satisfactory.
Julia Gillard has invited people to say what they feel on the issue of how Australia should manage its borders. It's worth recalling what happened when an Australian Government last instructed its defence force to vigorously repel asylum-seeker boats.
On Monday night on ABC1's Q&A, Tony Abbott was asked about the recent wave of boat people including Hazaras fleeing the Taliban in Afghanistan. At the end of one recent meeting in Indonesia, a 15-year-old Hazara named Ali came and told me his heart wrenching story.
Once again the coalition is inflaming passions about what is actually an insignificant number of people arriving in Australian waters and claiming asylum. Unfortunately the Government is getting caught up in this debate because it insists on maintaining the excision and Christmas Island Centre.
Tony Abbott has declared John Howard's statement, 'We will decide who comes to this country and the circumstances in which they come', to be 'self-evidently and robustly true'. The Australian people deserve a better basis for policy than an appeal to self-interest.
Isabel Guterres came to Australia as a refugee from East Timor in the early '80s. Recently the Australian Catholic University awarder her its highest honour in recognition of her lifetime commitment to justice and service. Her story is a lesson in the value of treating refugees with humanity.
Shaun Carney from The Age remarks that governments can be expected to treat refugee policy as 'just politics'. We have seen the consequences for the economy of tolerating 'business as usual'. It would be a pity to prostitute government in the same way.
Peter Costello draws a long bow in presuming smugglers provided the boat that sank off the Cocos Islands this week. As with the sinking of the SIEV X, it is unfortunate that it takes a tragedy to remind us that at the heart of this issue are desperate human beings.
The reception of asylum seekers is to be judged by the human reality of those who seek asylum, not by convenience of those on whom they make a claim. It is morally unjustifiable for Australia to transfer its responsibilities to Indonesia.
When debating key issues such as the balance between sovereignty and the human rights of asylum seekers, we can sometimes forget that we're dealing with people. What's clear for advocates can pose difficulties for politicians.
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