Abbott, Morrison, Turnbull and Dutton are not to be believed when they express concern about people drowning in their attempt to reach safety. Their policy (which Labor basically supports) seems to be this: “We are so concerned about you drowning, that we will punish you if you don’t drown.”
The Federal election campaign of 2013 was the first time in our political history that both major parties campaigned on a promise to be cruel to a particular group of human beings: asylum seekers. They promised to treat asylum seekers so harshly that others would be deterred from seeking our help. This completely ignores the point of the Refugees Convention, and it ignores Article 14 of the Universal Declaration of Human Right, which says “Everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution.”
Since the 2013 election, we have witnessed increasingly brutal treatment of asylum seekers. This was done, in large part, by Scott Morrison repeatedly referring to boat people as “illegal arrivals” and then morphing it into the idea of “border protection”. It is the great lie on which his campaign of cruelty was based. It ignores Article 14 of the Universal Declaration. It ignores the fact that it is not an offence to come here, without papers, without an invitation, seeking asylum. It is also the foundation of Mr Dutton’s equally harsh approach to boat people, in which votes are more important than human decency.
It is based on an alleged (but not genuine) concern about people drowning in their attempt to reach safety. When Abbott and Morrison or Turnbull and Dutton express a humanitarian concern about boat people drowning, they are lying. In fact, their stance demonstrates a complete lack of concern for the lives of persecuted people who are unable to escape. While it is undoubtedly tragic that people drown trying to escape persecution, it has been known for centuries that people perish in their attempt to find safety.
I do not believe Mr Abbott or Mr Morrison had any genuine humanitarian concern about asylum seekers. They said they stopped the boats. It was largely true: with a couple of exceptions, boats have stopped arriving. But we know they have not stopped setting out from Indonesia: we have been pushing them back. We are not allowed to know how many have drowned on those boats: it is an “on-water matter”, so it remains a secret.
“Stop the boats” became the mantra by which our government would be judged. Of course, the boats have not stopped setting out, so “stop the boats” came to mean “stop the boats arriving”. Morrison and Abbott were thrilled to be able to tell us that they had stopped the boats. But even if it is gratifying to say that you have achieved a three word slogan, it is not self-evident that the endeavour should be hailed a success.
Stopping refugee boats arriving is not a self-evident good. It might stop people drowning inconveniently in view of Australians at Christmas Island. But if they do not get on a boat and are, instead, killed by the Taliban, they are just as dead as if they drowned. If they try to flee to Europe and drown in the Mediterranean, they are still dead. The real difference is that our conscience is not troubled by their un-noted death somewhere else.
It is worth remembering that boat people are, by definition, people with enough initiative to take steps to escape persecution, and enough courage to risk their lives at sea. And they are fleeing the same extremists we are fighting in the Middle East. So what’s not to like about them? Stopping the boats prevents our society from receiving people who are brave and determined.
Boat people who have managed to get here without drowning are treated with unparalleled harshness. They are treated as sub-humans, in needlessly dreadful conditions in Nauru and Manus Island. Reza Barati was murdered in the Manus Island detention centre, by the people guarding him. Hamid Kehazaie died of septicaemia after cutting his foot in Manus island, because the medical care for detainees in detention centres run by Australia is hopelessly compromised.
Let us face the plain facts: innocent men, women and children are suffering terribly in detention centres, and their suffering is the intended result of Australia’s policy. As a nation, Australia is responsible for the misery and harm deliberately inflicted on boat people by successive governments.
As always, a very accurate and honest assessment of this appalling situation.
I suggest that Mr Burnside and others think or do more about the problem of so many people trying to leave their native land. i suggest that accepting those who can get across on boats does little to solve the problem as it probably means that the less capable ones are left to suffer more. when almost everyone has left will the strife just spread more widely? What is the real cause of all the strife anyway? Does anyone know?
I agree that we need to look at ultimate causes: it might even be that our participation in the bombing of Afghanistan and Iraq had a bit to do with it, and our support for American hostilities in Syria.
But the key question is this: when people flee the insanity and horors of what is happening in other parts of the world, should we treat them decently, or should we mistreat them?
They break no law by coming here to seek safety. They aren’t “illegal”. OUr politicians call boat people “illegal” because it makes it seem respectable to mistreat them.
It’s not how Australia should behave.
Don’t mistreat boat people: get rid of the politicians who have lied to us for years to make us think it’s OK to treat boat people like animals.
What amazes me is the ignorance those who believe in the 3 word slogan due to the fact both major parties stop the boats policy procludes an intelligent social discourse based on facts and not pandering to peoples prejudices. It seems to me mainstream media has been effective since Howards term in office promoting dog whistle politics.
You obviously didn’t read what Julian wrote. The asylum seekers trying to get to safety in Australia are fleeing war, persecution and brutality.
They may have escaped the war, but are subject to the persecution and brutality at our hands.
Do you think it is just or honourable to treat refugees trying to escape the horrors of war in the eay we are? And remember children are also being subjected to rape and physical snd psychological torture in our concentration camps. What next, our very own Dr Mengele conducting appalling experiments on these unfortunate people?
And even if it were true that they are illegal immigrants, what gives us the right to behave like Nazis?
Stating exactly how I feel. The problem we face is defeating the irrational fear, fed by politicians for their own gain, that so many Australians have. I despair when I hear this fear perpetuated in the mainstream media. Surely there must be some journalists out there who can speak up for those of us who recognise the truth in what you’ve said.
Is our treatment of asylum seekers torture in terms of the Convention against Torture?
Yes
Perhaps you should have a taste of it and decide for yourself.
Its like Terre Nullius all over. They think that if they say a lie often enough it will become the truth supported by law.
Thank you for putting so succinctly my gut reaction to those people who were labelled ‘illegals’ and condemned for taking the risks they did (so courageously) to flee persecution. Thanks again for your presentation at Mansfield. You might be interested to know that ‘coffee shop chatter’ in our town is that ‘Julian Burnside did not mention the rise in the crime rate in Sheparton since the arrival of the refugees’! Are you aware of the statistics? And, of course, the two are not necessarily related.I would very much appreciate your advice as to how to find out about the so-called statistics to develop an informed reply to this claim! Thank you again for your willingness to speak with individuals. I chatted with you before your presentation — in the front row! Debbie Roberts
Julian, thank you for your continued work to highlight the poor way successive Australian Governments have treated people coming, or seeking to come to Australia. You are truly a national treasure!
totally agree.
Australia is re-enacting the cruelty of the settlement of Australia by Europeans and the harsh attitudes of the jailers toward the convicts. Australia’s very beginnings were steeped in violence intolerance and exploitation of anyone less powerful.The current government are uncaringly following In that tradition because they think it will win them the election.
As Julian Burnside says, the asylum seekers are brave and escaping from people to whom our culture is also opposed. Australia should welcome the asylum seekers as they are potentially good citizens.
Until the Australian Government stop the shockingly cruel treatment of asylum seekers and start acting in accordance with international law and commences processing asylum seeking applicants QUICKLY I will continue to be ashamed to be Australian
I would love to hear Julian’s views on the human rights abuses that are occurring on our own shores within our public involuntary mental health facilities, too.
The other thing that this and other governments have very conveniently whitewashed is our role in creating the maelstrom currently engulfing the Middle East.
An overwhelming shame, is what it feels like to be an Australian during these times. For human suffering to be treated as political fodder, and three word slogans turned into policies. With innocent, desperate families, risking their children’s lives to escape probable death.
We deprive them of their human right to seek asylum, label the survivors illegals, and become the first country in the world to criminalise refugees, and the only country to detain children.
The sneering face of Tony Abbot comes to mind, self acclaimed Christian, yet just a religious hypocrite without empathy or grace.
His greatest achievement, his proudest moment!The boats have stopped! yet how are we to know? How can we believe anything from this government, cloaked in secrecy and lies. No one will ever know know how many lives were lost during this time.
And the Rohinga, trapped in a heaving vessel of despair on the high seas for a month, in limbo. The Australian governments violation of the The Refugee Convention. The vile manipulations of George Brandis and the LNP, holding the children in detention, for ransom, just days before Christmas. A blight on Australian politics, underhanded and immoral acts, purely to reposition themselves legally. We emerge, no longer a member of the Refugee Convention, and the children, well they were still behind bars on Christmas Day. These are only a few of the atrocities committed by this government in 2015.
And don’t forget the other self-proclaimed Christian Scott Morrison who lied to us by calling boat pepple “illegal” and then dressed up the whole exercise as “border protection” as if we need to be protected from innocent people who are just looking for a place to be safe.
Morrison, Abbott, Dutton: all need to be condemned, and they should be held to account for their cruelty and dishonesty
Thank you for your powerful argument in this depressing saga your words stand out like a beacon of light. It is absolutely galling that our taxpayers money goes in the billions to the gulags of Nauru and Manus Is. Maybe the Greens plan of targeting Malaysia and Indonesia to assist this enroute is best ?
It’s worth remembering that the reason so many people were drowning was because of the excision of Australian islands close to Indonesia from the Australian migration zone. This meant that the boats had a lot further to go. Also, making it difficult for asylum seekers to sponsor family members to come to Australia means that instead of the strongest member of the family making the hazardous trip and then bringing their loved ones over by sponsorship, the entire families needed to make the voyage. These changes were all made under Howard, it seems a lot of us have forgotten that the drownings at sea were also a result of Australian government policy.