Barbecue facts:

Civil Liberties and Human Rights in Australia

When you have considered these facts, compare them with the values John Howard expressed in a speech on 25 January 2006:

“…the common values that bind us together as one people – respect for the freedom and dignity of the individual, a commitment to the rule of law, the equality of men and women and a spirit of egalitarianism that embraces tolerance, fair play and compassion for those in need…”

1. ASIO has power to hold a person in secret detention for a week and force them to answer questions.  The person need not be suspected of any offence.

2. A person’s visa or passport can be cancelled if ASIO assesses the person adversely on security grounds.

3. A person assessed adversely on security grounds is not told what facts ASIO has relied on to reach the adverese assessment. 

4. Mahommad Sagar is still held on Nauru by Australia after 5 years, even though Australian officials accept that he is a refugee.  He has been adversely assessed by ASIO, but they will not tell him why.  When ASIO officials went to Nauru recently to re-interview him, they forgot to get visas to enter Nauru.

5. The Federal Police have power to obtain a secret order (a ‘preventative detention order’) gaoling a person for up to 14 days if they suspect that the person is about to commit an offence of the prescribed sort.

6. The Federal Police have power to obtain a secret order (a ‘control order’) which can have the effect of holding a person under house-arrest for up to 12 months, without access to the telephone or internet.

7. The subject of a preventative detention order or a control order is not allowed to know the evidence against them.

8. Heavily armed Federal police executed a raid on a house in Sydney.  They thought the owner was a person suspected of potential involvement in a terrorist offence.  They raided the wrong house.  They later had to compensate the owner and his family for the terror they had suffered.

9. In any litigation (civil or criminal), the Federal Attorney-General has power to certify that particular evidence should not be received, on the basis that the evidence might affect Australia’s “national security”.   Our “national security” is defined as including our interest in “political, military and economic relations with foreign governments and international organisations” and our interest in the functions of international law enforcement agencies.

10. It is not an offence to enter Australia and seek asylum, even if this is done without permission.  Australia imprisons innocent people who have asked for our help.

11. Average number of visitsors to Australia each year: 4.7 million.

12. Average number of new permanent immigrants accepted into Australia each year: 110,000

13. Average number of visa-overstayers in Australia at any one time: 55,000.  By overstaying their visas, they commit an offence.  Very few are found, let alone imprisoned.

14. Average number of unauthorised asylum seekers arriving in Australia between 1981 and 2001: 1000.  Largest number in any one year: 4100.  That number was reached 6 years after mandatory detention was introduced.  Some deterrent!

15. Average percentage of the unauthorised asylum seekers found to have genuine claims for refugee status: 90%.

16. Australia’s detention of refugees would disqualify it for membership of the European Union: our human rights record falls below the EU’s acceptable minimum standards.

17. Detainees are liable for the cost of their own detention (section 209 of the Migration Act).  Some have detention debts of more than $200,000 and the Department knows well they can’t pay.  The debts will be used to repel people, even refugees who have lived here for years.  If they ever leave Australia they will not be re-admitted as they have a Federal debt. 

18. All detention centres have solitary confinement cells;  confining children for days is not uncommon, people are routinely handcuffed.  So-called “toilet privileges” are denied in some cells (even in Melbourne).

19. We treat innocent people this way as a deterrent to others.

20. The Pacific Solution has involved deflecting asylum seekers from Australia’s offshore islands (now excised from the migration zone) and putting them on Nauru.  Nauru is a sovereign republic, with a population of 11,500).  On Nauru, detainees have been routinely denied access to legal help from any source.  There are no qualified lawyers on Nauru.  Australian lawyers have been excluded at the urging of the Australian government.

21. Australia has spent about one billion dollars on the Pacific Solution.  It has deflected about 1000 people from our borders over the past 5 years.

22. The Human Rights Commission reported in 2004 that the mandatory detention of children breached Australia’s obligations under international human rights conventions to which Australia is a signatory.  These included the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

23. Shayan Badraie was held in detention for years, and suffered immense psychological trauma as a result of the way he was treated.  The Human Rights Commission recommended that the Federal Government pay him $70,000 compensation.  They refused.  In court proceedings brought by Shayan, the Government spent $1.5 million defending the case, and eventually agreed to pay him $400,000 compensation.