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The Department of Immigration and Citizenship say they can't tell me anything. The Inspector General of Intelligence and Security tells me to contact DIAC. As an immigration lawyer I find this frustrating. How much worse must it be for asylum seekers kept in detention with no end in sight?
Paul Keating said: 'Governments that wander along uncertain about where they are, looking over their shoulder, invariably get run over themselves.' If Labor doesn't stop looking over its shoulder on asylum seekers, it will miss another opportunity to stand up for what it says it believes in.
The reintroduction of the Complementary Protection Bill to Parliament this week ought be welcomed. Given the protests in Christmas Island, it is clear that the mandatory detention policy is also overdue for reform.
There are homosexual persons who enter into loving, faithful and committed relationships. It is difficult to characterise a law that gives non-discriminatory protection to such couples as 'so harmful to the common good as to be gravely immoral' as Benedict has previously done.
The girl at the centre of the ongoing AFL sex scandal presents herself as a woman scorned. In truth she's a child in need of protection. Child protection laws once enabled police to ask a court to have a girl made a ward of state if she appeared to be 'in moral danger'.
Nobody pretends child maltreatment is easily prevented. Yet we are passionate about the evils of same-sex marriage. Wouldn't it be great if we put that energy into providing what children need: a family environment of love and understanding where they can achieve their potential.
My father would harbour a modern sense of can-do-ism and irreverence for tradition throughout his life. It was his vision of a new and better world along with the conviction that his sons had no future in the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, that drove us on to that horribly overcrowded boat in 1979.
'Karim' is calling every second day now. His protection visa application was lodged six months ago and he was interviewed four months later. He was brutally tortured in his home country and has lived with debilitating trauma ever since. He now thinks his case will be refused because of the long delays in processing.
According to the Coalition, 'bad refugees' who come on boats take places that could otherwise go to 'good refugees' who wait patiently in camps. Labelling refugees as 'good' or 'bad' according to how they arrive in Australia reflects an insular opinion that does not reflect what is happening worldwide.
Mother Fish recreates the journey by sea of a group of Vietnamese refugees. During an election campaign where both major parties are trying to win votes with prejudicial rhetoric about 'border protection', a bit of truth and humanity is just what's needed.
As the election lather on the asylum seeker issue continues, let's ask, 'Why is it right to treat the honest, unvisaed boat person more harshly than the visaed airplane passenger who fails to declare their intention to apply for asylum?'
Abbott's 'red arrows' asulym seeker ad is reminiscent of the 'reds under the beds' hysteria of the '50s and '60s. With an election on the way, the immigration policy reform agenda has been put aside as both Government and Opposition harden their policies.
109-120 out of 135 results.