Keywords: Temporary Protection Visas
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RELIGION
- Frank Brennan
- 21 June 2010
14 Comments
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?'
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RELIGION
- Frank Brennan
- 18 June 2010
1 Comment
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AUSTRALIA
- Andrew Hamilton
- 31 May 2010
22 Comments
The Coalition's new asylum seeker policy returns to the policy it put into practice under Mr Howard, adding new nasties. The Government's asylum seeker policy is bad; the Coalition's is worse. It is designed to appeal to human baseness, not to human generosity.
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ENVIRONMENT
The Howard years made me feel ashamed to be Australian, and I felt about his electoral defeat the way East Germans felt about the Berlin Wall coming down: as a kind of cleansing. Rudd disappoints for a different reason.
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INTERNATIONAL
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.
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INTERNATIONAL
- Kerry Murphy
- 30 March 2010
4 Comments
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.
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AUSTRALIA
- Andrew Hamilton
- 06 November 2009
9 Comments
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.
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INTERNATIONAL
- Kerry Murphy
- 02 November 2009
3 Comments
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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AUSTRALIA
- Kerry Murphy
- 01 July 2009
1 Comment
'Migration reform' rarely has positive
connotations when dealing with refugees and asylum seekers. As asylum seekers continue to reach Australia by boat, reforms to Labor's immigration policies point to a more just approach.
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RELIGION
- Andrew Hamilton
- 23 April 2009
25 Comments
With uncharacteristic vehemence, Mr Rudd said people smugglers could rot in hell.
This kind of language echoes the tabloid characterisation of people who have done foul deeds as monsters. The Christian view of evil is more complex.
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AUSTRALIA
- Kerry Murphy
- 20 November 2008
1 Comment
The Rudd Government's abolition of the Temporary Protection Visa on 9 August was a source of deep hope for refugees and their supporters. However the new rule has not yet been applied to many older cases, and there is no pressure on officials to act quickly.
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AUSTRALIA
- Susan Biggar
- 26 September 2008
12 Comments
Maybe we shouldn't have been surprised when the rejection letter arrived in the mail. After all, the Immigration Department is entrusted with separating the sheep from the goats, and our family, apparently, has some black sheep.
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