Crikey Media Wrap: Yesterday the Gillard administration did the seemingly unthinkable: they outlined — gasp! — a slightly different policy direction on refugee and asylum seeker processing.
Immigration
What lay behind the Villawood
protests?
Are immigration detainees risking their lives under the belief protests will be rewarded? The government is keen to send the signal that they won’t be after a recent spate of protests at the Villawood Detention Centre.
Next stop, the Darwin Airport Motel: home to 150 asylum seeker teens
There are around 150 boys aged 14 to 17 currently locked up in the Darwin Airport Motel who have not left the building since April. Pamela Curr went to visit them.
Rudd’s East Timor challenge
New Foreign Affairs Minister Kevin Rudd will know there won’t be any quick or easy “East Timor solution”, and there may not be one at all. So what will he do?
Inside the motel rooms asylum seeker kids call home
The Australian government maintains that it does not detain children in immigration detention centres. Instead, children are detained in motels or mining camps, writes Pamela Curr.
The Essential voting reasons
This week’s Essential Report washes out into a two party preferred of 54/46 to Labor. But what do voters think of Tony Abbott’s plan to cut the immigration numbers? Possum Comitatus crunches the figures.
Refugees and the election — remembering and forgetting
How many times will we hear about troublesome asylum seekers and wicked people smugglers in this campaign? These labels are very familiar to the Jewish community, writes Dr June Factor.
Arizona’s alien law ain’t happening
The controversial new Arizona immigration law — where immigrants had to carry papers at all times and could be detained by police if they don’t — was blocked in part by a federal judge, just hours before it was to come into effect. Now what?
Business the victim in this (non)policy war
Ten days into the 2010 election campaign the major parties are opening their war chests to woo voters. But both major candidates have so far appeared desperate to highlight their credentials despite being devoid of meaningful policy on important economic or business issues, writes Ian Verrender.
Crikey Says: Gillard ducks for cover on immigration
Julia Gillard’s take on immigration and population is a colossal failure of policy, management and political communication, and it will have significant consequences for generations to come.
The elusive magic number on population
Daily Media Wrap: Kevin10 appears as a far more subdued campaign version of Kevin07, Gillard and Abbott prepare their tasty morsels for debate and how can population be sustainable without discussing immigration?
Campaign Crikey morning edition Day 5: it’s about soil
“I don’t think this is a immigration debate…I think it’s bringing into play issues about water about soil about city planning about infrastructure and services, about getting skilled people where we need them.”
Crikey Says: Tell it like it is to everyone, not just a select few
When Immigration Minister Chris Evans first took on the portfolio his thoughtful words on the difficulties he faced were refreshing. They were also public.
Evans weasels out of asylum seeker confession
Immigration Minister Chris Evans’s ‘truth explosion’ yesterday and his subsequent backdown shouldn’t be considered a crime, writes Samantha Maiden, but trying to stop a journo from publishing it should be.
Lessons in History: Asylum seeker fear is in the fabric of our nation
There exists an eternal and unshakeable fear within the Australian populace of those who come here from elsewhere seeking a better life. This fear is nothing new, writes Mike Stuchbery.
What would a proper regional solution look like?
Under Gillard’s new East Timor Solution, we may finally get a well resourced, properly administered regional refugee processing centre that has UNHCR participation and regional government cooperation, writes Possum Comitatus.
All aboard the Timor fix
Daily Media Wrap: Prime Minister Gillard blew the boat people issue wide open yesterday, unveiling her plan to build a new offshore processing centre in East Timor for asylum seekers. Clever policy or Pacific Solution 2.0?
graph pr0n Boat people: this is what you are “anxious” about
This week refugees, boat people and population growth have hit the headlines again. But what are the boat people statistics compared to the rest of the Australian population?
Bob Ellis: Some words of advice to Gillard’s chief of staff
The nation looks to the leader to see how to react to the boat people issue. So let’s not vilify them, burn their boats and lock them up, when we let others in with open arms, writes Bob Ellis.
Bartlett: Who exactly has been holding back in the asylum seeker debate?
It is very dispiriting to see yet another asylum seeker debate being driven by the same disregard for the human cost and the same disinterest in connecting the ‘debate’ to facts or reality, writes Andrew Bartlett.
Your Say: Daily Mail readers' feedback: Gillard, the ALP and immigration
Crikey readers have their say about Julia Gillard’s immigration policy.
Immigration rhetoric can’t be sustained
Julia Gillard has adopted the narrow rhetoric of the anti-immigration lobby that will cost Australia dearly in the future. It’s the ultimate in vision-less leadership.
Bartlett: Lies and leaflets from the LNP
The Liberal National Party is constantly labelling asylum seekers and refugees as “illegal immigrants”. No point letting accuracy get in the way when an extra few votes can be won by inciting hatred, writes Andrew Bartlett.
To kill a leadership: what Atticus Finch can teach Kevin Rudd
Atticus Finch may be a fictional character, but that doesn’t mean his ideas about prejudice aren’t relevant to today’s asylum seeker debate. Playing to xenophobia is a political nightmare, says Greg Barns.
