Crikey media wrap: The Gillard government appeared willing to negotiate its Malaysia Solution even before the latest boat tragedy but the Opposition refuses to compromise on its asylum seeker policy, according to private letters released yesterday.
Boat people
One year on: reflecting on the Christmas Island boat tragedy
In the dark reflection of the one-year anniversary of the shipwreck of SIEV 221 – the Christmas Island Boat Tragedy – it’s time to ask ourselves and each other: what have we learned? writes Peter Chambers.
Abbott’s statesman’s hat is so unfashionably last year
I attended Tony Abbott’s address to The Sydney Institute last night with real enthusiasm, expecting to hear something good. However, what we got was 2010 revisited.
The consequences of turning boats back: SIEV towback cases
Twenty-seven people are feared dead after an boat packed with asylum seekers bound for Australia sank off the coast of Indonesia last week.
People smugglers, Indonesian fishermen and our ‘extreme green’ policy
People smugglers arrested for delivering people to Australian shores are predominantly Indonesian fishermen, who had their fishing grounds taken from them by Australia in 1989, writes Crikey naturalist Lionel Elmore.
UNHCR data reveals the shifting burden of asylum seekers
It’s easy to be misled by asylum claim figures. The global numbers don’t matter as much as where asylum seekers are coming from.
Dancing in detention: an asylum seeker’s story
An asylum seeker’s story reveals the human side of the boat debate, an intimate account of how mental illness is fomented in detention centres, writes freelance journalist Jacob Moss.
Media debate on boats doesn’t hold water
One of the most curious arguments over the past decade of refugee madness has been the idea that treating refugees humanely and according to our international treaty obligations is to encourage people smugglers.
Malaysia deal not sunk yet
Media wrap: Julia Gillard is likely to rescue her High Court-doomed Malaysia Solution policy, with Labor MPs expected to back changes this morning to the current Migration Act to allow offshore processing.
Gillard wanted to be judged on asylum seekers
Julia Gillard identified asylum seekers as a key issue for her. Now she deserves to be judged over the debacle.
Malaysia Solution lost at sea
Crikey media wrap: The federal government’s refugee swap deal with Malaysia is in tatters after the High Court yesterday ruled the scheme unlawful.
Asylum seekers … reception or detention? That is the question
Little known to Australians is that more than 8000 asylum seekers already live in the community and the sky hasn’t fallen in, writes Caz Coleman, a member of the Council for Immigration Services and Status Resolution.
Negotiating Malaysia agreement is one thing, seeing it through is another
The greatest challenge for Australia now lies in the reality that even if the boat arrivals cease, how else will we support our neighbouring countries to deal with a challenge of receiving asylum seekers that is far beyond our own scope, writes Caz Coleman, of the Council for Immigration Services and Status Resolution.
Cost of detention? $113,000 per asylum seeker
Over the last decade we’ve spent over $100,000 detaining each and every boat arrival.
Crikey Says: The border protection bottom line
Keane has crunched the numbers across budget and ANAO documents and calculated that our politicians’ fixation with asylum seekers arriving by boat has cost taxpayers nearly $2.4 billion since 2000.
Of boats and votes
Nielsen struck a blow for transparency yesterday by releasing comprehensive data for their polling on asylum seekers, featuring detail on the questions and how they were asked, breakdowns by state, location, gender, age and voting intention, writes William Bowe.
PNG plan takes heat off Malaysia deal
Crikey media wrap: The Malaysian Solution remains gridlocked in the High Court, but Gillard has had a win in the asylum seeker debate with Papua New Guinea agreeing for a detention centre to be re-opened on Manus Island.
Crikey Clarifier: Who’s the guardian of unaccompanied minors sent from Oz?
The High Court will today hear a challenge, led by QC David Manne, on the human rights implications of sending asylum seekers who have arrived by boat in Australia to Malaysia as part of the federal government’s hyped Malaysian Solution.
Welcome to the Malaysian Solution
Crikey media wrap: The government yesterday announced the details of its Malaysian Solution policy, a plan it hopes will diminish the number of asylum seekers arriving on our coastlines by boat.
Malaysian detention centres court risk of human rights abuse
What this new deal is really about is trying to win back public confidence in the government’s ability to control its borders, writes Khalid Koser, a visiting fellow at the Lowy Institute.
Talent scouting for SBS hit: on the F*ck Off We’re Full Facebook page
Where did the production company of Go Back to Where You Came From find a 21-year-old woman from the Western suburbs who will happily call herself a racist on national television?
Menadue: a flash card to help navigate the refugee fact free zone
The “race to the bottom” in our treatment of asylum seekers is littered with misinformation and untruth, writes John Menadue, a director of the Centre for Policy Development.
Budget breakdown: trampling on human rights is expensive
Asylum seekers continue to suffer because of poll-driven policies and their fate remains an enormous political problem for Australia. John Menadue, of the Centre for Policy Development, adds up how expensive trampling on human rights really is.
Political snippets: Gillard move straight from the Bolt playbook
In the Sunday newspapers was the story of the federal Labor government having accepted one of Andrew Bolt’s recommendations. And not a word from him about this confirmation of his importance.
Eltham: Mandatory detention is morally bankrupt
Our treatment of asylum seekers is akin to the totalitarian dictators that Australia normally stands against. Just because oppressing asylum seekers is popular with voters, doesn’t mean it’s right, declares Ben Eltham.
