tag:theconversation.com,2011:/ca/topics/tampa-1313/articles
Tampa – The Conversation
2022-09-26T17:23:59Z
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/191341
2022-09-26T17:23:59Z
2022-09-26T17:23:59Z
3 reasons Hurricane Ian poses a major flooding hazard for Florida – a meteorologist explains
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/486651/original/file-20220926-15-b2o3ti.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=355%2C508%2C1657%2C958&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Hurricane Ian gained strength as it headed over warm waters off Cuba on Sept. 26, 2022.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://cdn.star.nesdis.noaa.gov/GOES16/ABI/CONUS/GEOCOLOR/20222692201_GOES16-ABI-CONUS-GEOCOLOR-2500x1500.jpg">NOAA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Hurricane Ian strengthened into a major hurricane on Tuesday as it headed for Florida and was <a href="https://apnews.com/article/storms-hurricanes-caribbean-florida-ron-desantis-d847a2960c7f0dd6ff616be99c457c36">on track to bring</a> dangerous storm surge to the coast and flooding rainfall to <a href="https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/refresh/graphics_at4+shtml/100939.shtml?rainqpf#contents">large parts of the state</a>. Several areas were under <a href="https://www.tampabay.com/hurricane/2022/09/26/hillsborough-orders-300000-evacuate/">evacuation orders</a>.</p>
<p>After a <a href="https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/text/MIATWSAT.shtml">slow start</a> to the 2022 Atlantic hurricane season, Ian formed in ideal conditions, with minimal vertical wind shear, which can tear apart a storm, and <a href="https://www.ospo.noaa.gov/data/sst/contour/namerica.cf.gif">warm ocean surface waters</a> providing fuel.</p>
<p>Forecasters expect Ian to remain a major hurricane – meaning Category 3 or higher on the <a href="https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/aboutsshws.php">Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale</a>, with winds over 110 mph – as it heads for landfall in Florida, expected Wednesday. But the scale doesn’t take water risk into account, and flooding and storm surge are both major risks from Ian.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A rainfall map for the next five days shows a wide band of heavy rain across the middle of the state." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/486931/original/file-20220927-13397-pshkdo.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/486931/original/file-20220927-13397-pshkdo.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=482&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486931/original/file-20220927-13397-pshkdo.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=482&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486931/original/file-20220927-13397-pshkdo.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=482&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486931/original/file-20220927-13397-pshkdo.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=605&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486931/original/file-20220927-13397-pshkdo.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=605&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486931/original/file-20220927-13397-pshkdo.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=605&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Large parts of the state could see 15 inches or more of rain from Hurricane Ian.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/refresh/graphics_at4+shtml/161142.shtml?rainqpf#contents">National Hurricane Center</a></span>
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<p>As a <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/athenamasson">meteorologist living in Florida</a>, I study tropical storms and hurricanes. Here are three reasons Florida is facing a high risk of water hazards this week.</p>
<h2>The rainy side of the storm</h2>
<p>Tropical systems are not perfectly symmetrical systems – one side is typically larger. With Ian tracking up the west coast of Florida, the peninsula is expected to be on the “<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/capital-weather-gang/wp/2017/09/10/dissecting-the-parts-of-a-hurricane/">wet” side of the storm</a>. The part of the storm east of the center of circulation generally has more cloud cover and more rain.</p>
<p>While Ian travels up the Florida coast, these outer bands will stretch over much of the peninsula and produce heavy rain for many locations, beginning <a href="https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/text/refresh/MIATCDAT4+shtml/260300.shtml">as early as Monday night</a> for South Florida and late Wednesday for northern parts of the state. </p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/kDMEGol7sBE?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">The most dangerous side of the storm is its front right quadrant.</span></figcaption>
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<p>Some <a href="https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/refresh/graphics_at4+shtml/102341.shtml?rainqpf#contents">weather models are forecasting</a> 15 inches or more of rain across a wide swath of the state.</p>
<p>Regardless of the landfall location, most of the Florida Peninsula will see effects from Hurricane Ian.</p>
<h2>Storm surge risk</h2>
<p>As Hurricane Ian continues to track north, it will be pushing the waters of the Gulf of Mexico northward with it. This is <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-is-hurricane-storm-surge-and-why-can-it-be-so-catastrophic-145369">storm surge</a>, and it raises the water level, with waves on top adding to its destructive power.</p>
<p>The Gulf acts like a huge bathtub, and when strong storms enter into this region, they help lift up the water due to <a href="https://scied.ucar.edu/learning-zone/storms/what-causes-storm-surge">low barometric pressure</a>. Barometric pressure has a direct influence on sea levels. When air pressure rises, sea levels lower. However, lower barometric pressure lifts the sea. </p>
<p>Additionally, the storm’s strong winds will push the water in the same direction the storm is heading. Since land surrounds the Gulf of Mexico, there is nowhere for this water to go but inland.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A man kayaks through a flooded street, past people standing on porches with water up the stairs of the homes. The yards aren't visible." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/486548/original/file-20220926-16-8tqt38.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/486548/original/file-20220926-16-8tqt38.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486548/original/file-20220926-16-8tqt38.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486548/original/file-20220926-16-8tqt38.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486548/original/file-20220926-16-8tqt38.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486548/original/file-20220926-16-8tqt38.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486548/original/file-20220926-16-8tqt38.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Storm surge from Hurricane Irma flooded neighborhoods in Jacksonville, Florida, in 2017.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/justin-hand-navigates-storm-surge-flood-waters-from-news-photo/845803326?adppopup=true">Sean Rayford/Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>Locations along a large part of the western Gulf Coast could see storm surge heights between <a href="https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/refresh/graphics_at4+shtml/161142.shtml?peakSurge#contents">4 and 12 feet</a>, depending on just how close Ian tracks to the coastline. The highest storm surge forecast as of Tuesday was from Sarasota to Fort Myers, with some of the highest risk near Port Charlotte. </p>
<p>Due to Ian’s northward track, portions of the Big Bend and the Panhandle can expect to <a href="https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/refresh/graphics_at4+shtml/102341.shtml?peakSurge#contents">see some storm surge and coastal flooding</a>, especially as the storm nears land. The Tampa Bay and Charlotte Harbor areas in particular should be monitoring Ian closely, especially if the center of circulation makes a direct impact or remains just offshore. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.baynews9.com/fl/tampa/news/2022/09/26/mandatory-evacuations-ordered-for-zone-a-in-hillsborough-county">Mandatory evacuation orders</a> were already in effect Monday for parts of Hillsborough, Pinellas and Manatee counties, and Hernando County had a voluntary evacuation order. As the expected point of landfall shifted southward, Sarasota County ordered evacuations. Residents were encouraged to <a href="https://www.floridadisaster.org/knowyourzone/">check their evacuation zones</a> and <a href="https://www.floridadisaster.org/planprepare/shelters/">identify the closest shelters</a> before the storm arrives.</p>
<h2>Size matters</h2>
<p>Another factor to watch is Ian’s size. Size plays a key role in a hurricane’s impact.</p>
<p>A large hurricane, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2017/national/how-big-is-hurricane-irma/">like Irma in 2017</a>, will have more cloud cover and therefore more rain. Storm surge will reach a larger area with larger storms. If the storm is large enough, it could even generate storm surge on the eastern side of the Florida Peninsula, like Irma did along portions of northeast Florida. </p>
<p>A smaller storm, like <a href="https://www.nesdis.noaa.gov/news/hurricane-andrew-30-look-back-above">Hurricane Andrew in 1992</a>, is more of a wind storm and the impacts are in a smaller area. But as Florida saw with Andrew, wind damage can be catastrophic in these smaller systems.</p>
<p>It’s too early to tell how large Ian will get, but residents across Florida need to prepare for the risk of heavy rain, flash flooding, storm surge, isolated tornadoes and strong winds.</p>
<p><em>This article was updated on Sept. 27, 2022, with Ian reaching Category 3 strength.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/191341/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Athena Masson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Much of the state is at risk of heavy rainfall, and the coast could see devastating storm surge, particularly around Tampa Bay.
Athena Masson, Adjunct professor, Flagler College
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/189962
2022-09-14T20:03:21Z
2022-09-14T20:03:21Z
Bravery, insight and simmering fury: Australian female correspondents on speaking truth to power
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/483942/original/file-20220912-18-so06fl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C32%2C4351%2C2894&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Emma Alberici writes about the Fourth Estate with a combination of despondency, scorn and hope.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Richard Wainwright/AAP</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>A confession: I am an academic and a journalist, but the name at the top of an article means little to me – whether my own, or anyone else’s. It never has. I am always far more interested in elegantly rendered content. Whether it’s written by a man or a woman is irrelevant. </p>
<p>This gender disregard may seem counterintuitive. But being a woman does not change the craft of journalism. I know it changes almost everything else, but to survive as a woman in many (if not most) industries needs a sense of bloody-mindedness about our right to be there, and a weary robustness born of battle. </p>
<hr>
<p><em>Review: Through Her Eyes, edited by Melissa Roberts and Trevor Watson (Hardie Grant)</em></p>
<hr>
<h2>Does gender matter in journalism?</h2>
<p>In their preface, the co-editors of <a href="https://www.hardiegrant.com/au/publishing/bookfinder/book/through-her-eyes-by-trevor-watson/9781743798898">Through Her Eyes</a>, Melissa Roberts and Trevor Watson, touch on the sexism experienced by all female journalists. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/482665/original/file-20220905-21-xvl1vl.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/482665/original/file-20220905-21-xvl1vl.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/482665/original/file-20220905-21-xvl1vl.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=914&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/482665/original/file-20220905-21-xvl1vl.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=914&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/482665/original/file-20220905-21-xvl1vl.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=914&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/482665/original/file-20220905-21-xvl1vl.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1149&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/482665/original/file-20220905-21-xvl1vl.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1149&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/482665/original/file-20220905-21-xvl1vl.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1149&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<p>Like me, they think and write: “The gender of a correspondent shouldn’t matter.” They qualify: “But the reality is that until very recently, gender determined all in journalism, particularly opportunity.” This is also true.</p>
<p>Several of the correspondents in this book hurdled gendered obstructions to their career and set out alone to foreign lands, funding themselves by freelancing. So, in many ways, reading Through Her Eyes is humbling. Not because it collects the stories of 29 Australian <em>female</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/axing-the-walkley-for-international-reporting-another-nail-in-the-coffin-80467">foreign correspondents</a> who fought hard for their place, but because it collects the stories of foreign correspondents. </p>
<p>Most of these stories are deeply reflective. These chapters are the ones that resonate most – and will, I hope, make readers truly think. They reflect not on being an Australian woman in the field, but on the job and the skills of journalism. On speaking truth to power through written words.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/abc-has-for-too-long-been-unwilling-to-push-back-against-interference-at-its-journalists-expense-143999">ABC has for too long been unwilling to push back against interference – at its journalists' expense</a>
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</em>
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<h2>Emma Alberici’s personal perspective</h2>
<p>Emma Alberici’s chapter, “What’s news?”, is the one that really stands out. It’s not so much a running mission of gathering news in war-torn, dangerous and corrupt countries, but more an essay on the state of play of news-gathering culture. <a href="https://theconversation.com/abc-has-for-too-long-been-unwilling-to-push-back-against-interference-at-its-journalists-expense-143999">Alberici</a> writes with a simmering, recognisable fury. </p>
<p>She begins with the fiasco that was <a href="https://theconversation.com/australian-politics-explainer-the-mv-tampa-and-the-transformation-of-asylum-seeker-policy-74078">the Tampa incident</a> in August 2001 – “one of the most shameful periods in our political history” – and the subsequent spiking of the scoop she and Terry Ross gathered for Channel 9’s A Current Affair on <a href="https://theconversation.com/aus-nz-refugee-deal-is-a-bandage-on-a-failed-policy-its-time-to-end-offshore-processing-180241">Nauru</a>, where Australia dumped 434 traumatised people, most of them Afghan refugees. </p>
<p>A Current Affair replaced the shattering and shameful story of Australian government callousness Alberici and Ross had filed with an interview with an inventor who claimed to have created a cure for sweating. After 30 hours of getting to Nauru and manically interviewing, writing, filming and filing there, Alberici tells Ross that back in Sydney, their work has been shelved. Ross vomits at the news. </p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/PX3Wu4ClDTE?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Emma Alberici called her move from Channel 9 to the ABC, where she became their European correspondent, ‘serendipity’.</span></figcaption>
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<p>She writes of “serendipity” launching her from the commercial Channel 9 to the ABC later that year. Seven years later, she became the ABC’s European correspondent. And then there are several eviscerating pages on <a href="https://theconversation.com/is-news-corp-following-through-on-its-climate-change-backflip-my-analysis-of-its-flood-coverage-suggests-not-179468">the Murdoch press</a>, particularly in the United Kingdom, circling the phone hacking scandal and subsequent <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/leveson-inquiry-report-into-the-culture-practices-and-ethics-of-the-press">Leveson Inquiry</a>. It is a verifiable and considered unpacking. </p>
<p>She writes a tad despondently about the Fourth Estate and <a href="https://theconversation.com/funding-public-interest-journalism-requires-creative-solutions-a-tax-rebate-for-news-media-could-work-146563">public interest notions of journalism</a>, and scathingly about how “media houses continue to undermine the trust bestowed on them”. But she ends hopefully, invoking multi-platform news outlets, writing that “younger audiences and readers are voting with their feet, taking advertisers and philanthropic money with them”. This chapter is a personal perspective from inside an industry still desperately reshaping and reforming itself. It’s cogently argued, with a succinct rhythm.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/honouring-the-journalists-who-bring-us-stories-from-the-frontline-48087">Honouring the journalists who bring us stories from the frontline</a>
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<h2>Writing women correspondents back into history</h2>
<p>We all know women are written out of much historical narrative – they have been for centuries. The book redresses this, retrofitting stories of past female foreign correspondents between those of contemporary journalists. </p>
<p>These historical chapters – on <a href="https://www.far-eastern-heroes.org.uk/Keeping_The_Faith/html/lorraine_stumm.htm">Lorraine Stumm</a>, <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-07-13/diane-willman-describes-reporting-from-a-warzone/13947556">Diane Willman</a>, <a href="https://halloffame.melbournepressclub.com/article/kate-webb">Kate Webb</a> and <a href="https://halloffame.melbournepressclub.com/article/margaret-jones">Margaret Jones</a> – are compiled by editors Watson and Roberts. They are shorter by comparison and told in the third person, so give the text a slight imbalance. But they aptly place these women in the vanguard of Australian foreign correspondent work, alongside their contemporary counterparts. </p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/4cThzNsPNqU?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Kate Webb covered the Vietnam war and ‘broke the khaki ceiling’, from 1967.</span></figcaption>
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<p>The arc of this text performs an important function, honouring this work between the covers of a book, patching up and correcting the historical imprint of Australian foreign correspondents. The editors write: </p>
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<p>Women correspondents are the equal of their male counterparts. They are among the bravest and most insightful journalists we have at a time when the hot zone is more dangerous than it has ever been. </p>
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<p>They argue that the type of journalism historically covered by female journalists, what they call the “soft” stories, are now the “big” stories. This leap, infused with the argument that women report with more empathy than men, is polemical. By making it, the editors inadvertently differentiate between the product that male and female journalists produce. This is less than helpful in chasing equality for women – but I understand it, in this context, as counterbalance.</p>
<p>Each of the 29 stories in Through Her Eyes has the impact of a blockbuster film.
There is some powerful writing. Every chapter is an eye-opening glimpse into a world gone crazy – continuously, for the past 80 years. This is my biggest take-away: the ubiquitous corruption, greed, inequality and hatred we perpetrate on each other. </p>
<p>The granular lens through which most of these chapters are written is scintillatingly thought-provoking: the current <a href="https://theconversation.com/with-his-army-on-the-back-foot-is-escalation-over-ukraine-vladimir-putins-only-real-option-190046">Ukrainian plight</a>; the <a href="https://theconversation.com/protests-biznez-and-a-failed-coup-journalist-monica-attard-on-covering-the-empire-gorbachev-allowed-to-collapse-188469">fall of the Soviet Union</a>; the <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-china-combined-authoritarianism-with-capitalism-to-create-a-new-communism-167586">highly surveilled China</a>; coming face to face with the <a href="https://theconversation.com/one-year-into-taliban-control-afghans-face-poverty-and-repression-australia-cannot-turn-a-blind-eye-188727">Taliban</a>; being in Pakistan when a US elite squad executed Osama bin Laden. Beirut, Syria, Gaza, India, Central Africa, the Pacific and more. The stories are as riveting as they are horrifying. </p>
<p>When practitioners lean into their craft and write personally about what they see and feel, it invokes Dan Wakefield’s 1966 foundational text <a href="https://www.commentary.org/articles/joseph-epstein/between-the-lines-by-dan-wakefield/">Between the Lines: A reporter’s personal journey through public events</a>. Clearly a thinker before his time, Wakefield was one of the first to discuss the story behind the story – the story between the lines on the public record. </p>
<p>This is what Through Her Eyes gives us: the rest of the story, imbued with each writer’s personal experience and perspective, separate and additional to what was published or broadcast. It’s the journalist’s experience of gathering the story: what else she saw and felt.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/protests-biznez-and-a-failed-coup-journalist-monica-attard-on-covering-the-empire-gorbachev-allowed-to-collapse-188469">Protests, 'biznez' and a failed coup: journalist Monica Attard on covering the empire Gorbachev allowed to collapse</a>
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<h2>Strong and authoritative</h2>
<p>All the book’s chapters are strong and authoritative: Barbara Miller on the Russian invasion of Ukraine; Cate Cadell on technological surveillance in China; Anna Coren in <a href="https://theconversation.com/from-future-lawyer-to-betrothed-to-a-taliban-fighter-august-in-kabul-shows-how-life-changed-overnight-for-so-many-in-afghanistan-188352">Kabul</a>; Kirsty Needham’s expulsion from Beijing; Tracey Holmes in China and the Middle East; Ruth Pollard in <a href="https://theconversation.com/children-are-being-used-as-human-shields-in-syria-what-is-the-world-doing-about-it-175655">Syria</a>; Gwen Robinson in Manila; Sue Williams in Caledonia. </p>
<p>It is a stellar cast of gifted reporters: some dodging bullets, some dodging predatory men (including, for <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Janine_Perrett">Janine Perrett</a>, former prime minister Malcolm Fraser), some getting deported, some running towards the World Trade Center on <a href="https://theconversation.com/9-11-survivors-exposure-to-toxic-dust-and-the-chronic-health-conditions-that-followed-offer-lessons-that-are-still-too-often-unheeded-166537">9/11</a> when everyone else was running away. Yes, they are as brave, courageous and insightful as their male counterparts – but that is not surprising to any thinking woman. And it should not surprise any thinking man.</p>
<p>Women historically – and still – are blocked, excluded and obstructed in their careers, personal lives and education (more in some parts of the world than others). Just because they are women. Through Her Eyes offers a significant rebalancing act, for what was once deemed a male province. </p>
<p>But what is my real dream? To wrap my hands around a text written by Australian foreign correspondents of diverse identities and genders, within the pages of one book. A balanced, thoughtful and considered compilation of a cross-section of excellent Australian reporting from afar, continuing to speak truth to power through writing.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/189962/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sue Joseph does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Does a journalist’s gender matter if their job is to speak truth to power? It shouldn’t but until recently did. A new book, Through Her Eyes, tells the stories of our women foreign correspondents.
Sue Joseph, Associate Professor; Senior Research Fellow, University of South Australia
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/154452
2021-02-04T19:55:38Z
2021-02-04T19:55:38Z
Why the risk of attending the Super Bowl in Tampa during the pandemic might be too great
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/382565/original/file-20210204-18-alopc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=125%2C179%2C5811%2C3772&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Tampa, Fla., is hosting Sunday's Super Bowl football game, despite the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Tens of millions of fans will tune into the 55th Super Bowl on Feb. 7 to watch the Tampa Bay Buccaneers play the Kansas City Chiefs. Despite the ongoing pandemic, 22,000 of those fans will be screaming and cheering from the stands in Tampa, Fla. </p>
<p>The number of new cases of COVID-19 in Florida peaked in early January, and have been in decline since. Still, the state is reporting about <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/us/florida-coronavirus-cases.html">46 cases and 0.79 deaths per 100,000 residents in the last seven days</a>. A <a href="https://www.miamiherald.com/news/coronavirus/article248944074.html">more infectious strain of COVID-19</a>, known as B.1.1.7, is on the rise in the state.</p>
<p>In all, 27,018 people have died from the coronavirus in Florida. Only <a href="https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/us/">Texas, California and New York have seen a greater number of deaths</a>. </p>
<p>Our ongoing research, centred on the ethical dilemmas faced by fans, athletes and organizations around the return to live sports during an ongoing pandemic, gives insight into the constructs that influence individuals when making ethical decisions. Public health officials and politicians have access to the same data on COVID-19 cases, deaths and transmission, so why do they arrive at different decisions? </p>
<h2>A pandemic Super Bowl</h2>
<p>The rules governing fan participation at major sporting events have varied during the pandemic. Lately, the decision has been left to <a href="https://www.sportsnet.ca/nhl/article/senators-melnyk-submits-robust-public-safety-plan-hopes-hosting-fans/">local health authorities</a>. Some states <a href="https://www.espn.com/nhl/insider/story/_/id/30737247/nhl-teams-wrestling-covid-19-fan-attendance-policies">allow fans but others don’t</a>. When California banned attendance at sporting events, <a href="https://www.sportingnews.com/ca/ncaa-football/news/rose-bowl-texas-location-tickets-cfp-semifinal/blf5sg5f5rlm1n1odx2g5b3qz">the Rose Bowl was moved to Arlington, Texas</a>.</p>
<p>The 55th Super Bowl will be a scaled-down version of past events. The National Football League has given tickets to 7,500 vaccinated health-care workers, and the rest will go to fans and the media, many of them travelling to Florida from all over the U.S. They will have to wear face masks, but none of them will need to show they have been vaccinated or be tested before entering the stadium.</p>
<p>We recognize that society is currently operating in a grey zone, where the social conventions and rules of behaviour during COVID-19 are still being established. Often, once codes of conduct are established, <a href="https://philpapers.org/rec/JOSMAI">laws soon follow</a>. Yet, in the interim, sports fans are largely left to decide for themselves on whether going to a game is safe. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A man standing next to a trophy in a glass case, while a women takes a photo of him with her phone." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/382568/original/file-20210204-16-1nx3r5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/382568/original/file-20210204-16-1nx3r5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382568/original/file-20210204-16-1nx3r5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382568/original/file-20210204-16-1nx3r5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382568/original/file-20210204-16-1nx3r5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382568/original/file-20210204-16-1nx3r5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382568/original/file-20210204-16-1nx3r5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Fans have their photo taken with the Vince Lombardi Trophy ahead of the 53rd Super Bowl game in Atlanta, Jan. 30, 2019.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/David Goldman)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>So, why would Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis allow 22,000 fans to attend the game? As a mega sport event, the Super Bowl is more than just the game, it is <a href="https://www.wfla.com/sports/the-big-game/super-bowl-week-day-by-day-guide-to-events-in-tampa-bay/">a week-long event</a> with live music, sponsor parties, events with NFL legends and the opportunity to take your picture with the Vince Lombardi Trophy.</p>
<h2>Why allow fans?</h2>
<p>Research from the early stage of the pandemic suggests <a href="https://voxeu.org/article/political-beliefs-and-compliance-social-distancing-orders">there is a partisan divide when it comes to enforcing and following physical distancing orders</a>. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-020-00977-7">Republicans are less likely to impose and follow social distancing orders</a> in support of personal freedoms. </p>
<p>DeSantis, a Republican governor, has said he won’t shut down Florida to stop the spread of the coronavirus, that <a href="https://www.floridatoday.com/story/opinion/2020/12/21/we-must-require-more-transparency-desantis/6496577002/">people should have freedom and practise personal responsibility, and that it’s not the government’s responsibility to impose social distancing orders</a>. Florida has also <a href="https://nypost.com/2021/01/26/florida-pushing-to-host-2021-olympics-instead-of-tokyo/">bid to host the postponed 2020</a> Olympic Games should Japan decide to cancel them.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/tokyo-olympics-an-ethical-approach-will-determine-whether-athletes-should-get-vaccinated-ahead-of-the-public-153046">Tokyo Olympics: An ethical approach will determine whether athletes should get vaccinated ahead of the public</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>There’s also the health-care perspective. The discourse around “flattening the curve” has widely been based on the number of beds available in hospitals. </p>
<p>As <a href="https://www.palmbeachpost.com/story/news/local/2020/07/21/coronavirus-updates-what-you-need-to-know-tuesday-july-21/41776449/">COVID-19 cases surged this past summer in Florida</a> and ICU beds filled up, DeSantis continued to <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/health/desantis-defends-florida-hospital-icu-capacity">defend the state’s hospital capacity</a>. In early February, hospital beds in the Tampa Bay area were at <a href="https://bi.ahca.myflorida.com/t/ABICC/views/Public/ICUBedsCounty?%3AshowAppBanner=false&%3Adisplay_count=n&%3AshowVizHome=n&%3Aorigin=viz_share_link&%3AisGuestRedirectFromVizportal=y&%3Aembed=y.">84 per cent capacity</a>. </p>
<p>Even if a region’s hospitals have space for patients, is it ethical to knowingly put more people at risk? Jacinda Ardern, the prime minister of New Zealand, implemented an <a href="https://www.ctvnews.ca/world/jacinda-ardern-flattening-curve-wasn-t-enough-for-new-zealand-1.5233152">aggressive strategy to eliminate COVID-19 because her government realized that the health system didn’t have the capacity for a large outbreak</a>. Only <a href="https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html">25 people have died in New Zealand from COVID-19</a>. </p>
<p>The sporting event industry has been hit hard by COVID-19. The NFL has projected <a href="https://www.sportspromedia.com/news/nfl-team-losses-covid-19-2020-21-season-super-bowl-lv-cbs-tv-adverts-sales">US$3 billion to US$4 billion in lost revenues</a>. Local economies can benefit greatly from hosting large events like the Super Bowl.</p>
<p>Florida and Tampa may be especially eager to have fans attend since the Buccaneers are <a href="https://www.palmbeachpost.com/story/sports/pro/2021/01/24/super-bowl-lv-tampa-bay-buccaneers-make-history-first-home-team/4227883001/">the first team in 50 years to play a Super Bowl at home</a>. Past research suggests that the <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1559-1816.2010.00641.x">hometown fan advantage can enhance performance</a>. </p>
<h2>But is it safe?</h2>
<p>Before attending a sporting event, <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/daily-life-coping/attending-sports.html">the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends</a> fans know the number of COVID-19 cases where they live and where the event is taking place. They should also pay attention to the “transmission rate (Rt),” the average number of cases caused by one infected individual. The higher the value, the faster the spread, but when the value is less than one, the spread of the disease is slowing down.</p>
<p>As of late January, <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/1119412/covid-19-transmission-rate-us-by-state/">the transition rate for Florida was 0.97</a>, which means that each person infected with the disease would spread it to just under one other person. For comparison, <a href="https://www.publichealthontario.ca/-/media/documents/ncov/epi/covid-19-weekly-epi-summary-report.pdf?la=en">Ontario’s Rt value is 0.84</a>. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-new-covid-19-variants-are-on-the-rise-and-spreading-around-the-world-153530">Why new COVID-19 variants are on the rise and spreading around the world</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p><a href="http://www.espn.com/nfl/attendance">The Tampa Bay Buccaneers averaged 14,483 fans per game</a> this season, the third-highest in the NFL. For the Super Bowl, they will have to deal with a 50 per cent increase in attendance. And fans appear eager to attend: <a href="https://finance.yahoo.com/news/with-a-pandemiclimited-crowd-and-heavy-sales-in-florida-super-bowl-tickets-are-making-a-run-toward-record-heights-032023245.html">ticket prices for the available seats are skyrocketing</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="People standing close together, most wearing masks." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/382572/original/file-20210204-16-1tslqed.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/382572/original/file-20210204-16-1tslqed.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382572/original/file-20210204-16-1tslqed.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382572/original/file-20210204-16-1tslqed.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382572/original/file-20210204-16-1tslqed.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382572/original/file-20210204-16-1tslqed.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382572/original/file-20210204-16-1tslqed.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Fans watch warmups before the Rose Bowl NCAA college football game between Notre Dame and Alabama, in Arlington, Texas, on Jan. 1. 2021.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Ron Jenkins)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The CDC states that what matters most for COVID-19 transmission is how the stadium seating is set up. Groups from different households should remain at least two metres apart from each other. </p>
<p>Assuming everyone arrives as a two-person household, each group would require six seats, or 66,000 seats total, exactly the capacity of the Tampa stadium. Fans, however, will be on the move, both upon entry, exit and at various times throughout the game. <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/28/us/tampa-mayor-super-bowl-masks-trnd/index.html">People must wear masks at Super Bowl events</a> or risk being fined up to US$500. </p>
<p>Still, recent <a href="https://ca.finance.yahoo.com/news/poll-40-of-americans-ready-to-attend-an-outdoor-sports-event-after-covid-19-vaccine-112824804.html?guccounter=2">polls show that only 40 per cent of U.S. adults would attend an outdoor sporting event even after getting vaccinated</a>. For many, attending a sporting event remains too risky.</p>
<p>Businesses, government officials and public health experts may have access to the same information but many have reached different conclusions. Ticket prices aside, given the chance to attend this year’s Super Bowl, would you do it?</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/154452/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ann Pegoraro receives funding from Sport Canada. She is a co-director of E-Alliance, Canada's new Gender Equity in Sport Research Hub</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lianne Foti is an assistant director of the International Institute for Sport Business and Leadership at the University of Guelph.
</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kathleen Rodenburg does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Public health officials and politicians have access to the same data on COVID-19 cases, deaths and transmission, but might arrive at different conclusions.
Kathleen Rodenburg, Assistant Professor, Gordon S. Lang School of Business and Economics, University of Guelph
Ann Pegoraro, Lang Chair in Sport Management, Lang School of Business and Economics, University of Guelph
Lianne Foti, Assistant Professor, Gordon S. Lang School of Business and Economics, University of Guelph
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/115143
2019-05-03T05:20:00Z
2019-05-03T05:20:00Z
Issues that swung elections: Tampa and the national security election of 2001
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/271658/original/file-20190430-194620-1fbunak.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=14%2C16%2C1572%2C1432&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Front pages from Australian newspapers covering terrorist attacks on the United States. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://photos.aap.com.au/search/2001%20australia%20terrorist?q=%7B%22pageSize%22:100,%22pageNumber%22:1%7D">AAP Image</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>With taxes and health care emerging as key issues in the upcoming federal election, we’re running a series this week looking at the main issues that swung elections in the past, from agricultural workers’ wages to the Vietnam War. Read other stories in the series <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/issues-that-swung-elections-69985">here</a>.</em></p>
<hr>
<p>The 2001 Australian federal election was a remarkable contest. Widely expected to see the Howard coalition government lose office after two lacklustre terms, the Tampa refugee crisis and the September 11 terrorist attacks in the United States allowed the government to turn its political fortunes around. </p>
<p>Winning a presumed unwinnable election on the back of a strong national security agenda gave Howard’s team renewed impetus and assured its place in history. It fundamentally reshaped Australia’s political culture.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/leaders-try-to-dodge-them-voters-arent-watching-so-are-debates-still-relevant-115456">Leaders try to dodge them. Voters aren't watching. So, are debates still relevant?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The Howard government had rocky start to 2001. It had won the 1998 GST election, but failed to gain a majority of the popular vote. Resentment over the GST remained strong. Ultraconservative voters were turning to Pauline Hanson’s One Nation Party, and Newspoll <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Parliamentary_Departments/Parliamentary_Library/pubs/rp/rp0102/02rp11#app3">surveys</a> showed the Coalition’s approval ratings trailing Labor’s (39 to 45).</p>
<p>Conservative governments fell in Western Australia and the Northern Territory, and voter support for the coalition parties collapsed in the Queensland state election. The loss of the once safe seat of Ryan, and the leaking of a report by the Liberal Party president stating that the Coalition was <a href="https://www.heraldsun.com.au/tablet/former-liberal-chief-shane-stone-speaks-out-over-mean-memo-given-to-john-howard/news-story/353b85ba891095d60d3a9734255f8d75">mean, tricky and out of touch</a>, added fuel to the fire. Most political analysts agreed that the government was doomed. </p>
<h2>The Tampa crisis</h2>
<p>Howard tried to stem the flow, and victory in a byelection in the Victorian seat of Aston in July suggested some progress. But, the real circuit-breaker came in August, with <a href="https://theconversation.com/australian-politics-explainer-the-mv-tampa-and-the-transformation-of-asylum-seeker-policy-74078">the Tampa crisis</a>. Those dramatic events saw the arrival of a Norwegian tanker in Australian waters – and the refusal of the Howard government to accept the passengers seeking asylum – give birth to the infamous “Pacific Solution”. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/271655/original/file-20190430-194633-1efbah5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/271655/original/file-20190430-194633-1efbah5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/271655/original/file-20190430-194633-1efbah5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/271655/original/file-20190430-194633-1efbah5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/271655/original/file-20190430-194633-1efbah5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/271655/original/file-20190430-194633-1efbah5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/271655/original/file-20190430-194633-1efbah5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Asylum seekers wait on board the MS Tampa after being denied entry to Australian waters.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://photos.aap.com.au/search/tampa%20boat?q=%7B%22pageSize%22:100,%22pageNumber%22:1%7D">Wallenius Wilhelmsen/AAP</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>What followed was a highly politicised and militarised <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate/Former_Committees/maritimeincident/report/c01">response</a> to the “problem” of unauthorised maritime arrivals. This included the excising of islands from Australia’s migration zone in order to prevent asylum-seekers making visa applications, the legalisation of offshore processing, the removal of boats from Australian territorial waters by the navy, and the co-opting of Pacific nations like Nauru and Papua New Guinea into offshore detention management programs.</p>
<p>Some commentators have interpreted <a href="https://theconversation.com/australian-politics-explainer-the-mv-tampa-and-the-transformation-of-asylum-seeker-policy-74078">Howard’s Tampa battle</a> as pure political opportunism. But, this ignores the evidence that his government was already primed for a fight on border control. After <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Parliamentary_Departments/Parliamentary_Library/pubs/rp/rp1617/Quick_Guides/BoatTurnbacks">low levels of boat arrivals</a> for most of the 1990s, they rose to 3,721 in 1999, declined slightly in 2000 then rose significantly again in 2001 to 5,516. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/fixing-the-gap-between-labors-greenhouse-gas-goals-and-their-policies-115550">Fixing the gap between Labor's greenhouse gas goals and their policies</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Concern for the irregular boat arrivals began to build. This was made visible by increasingly strident public discourse and tough border control measures, like the Border Protection Legislation Amendment Act 1999 and Migration Legislation Amendment Act 1999. The treatment of asylum-seekers caught in indefinite mainland detention was a source of constant media attention and political embarrassment for the government. </p>
<p>Tampa was Howard’s line in the sand. It profoundly challenged his commitment as leader to the protection of national security and sovereignty. It confirmed his affinity with the mood and aspirations of the Australian people – a bond powerfully articulated in his <a href="https://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/search/display/display.w3p;query=Id:%22library/partypol/1178395%22">declaration</a> that: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>We will decide who comes to this country and the circumstances in which they come. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>As a seasoned politician, Howard also recognised Tampa’s electoral potential. From the beginning, his government was willing to politicise the issue. Labor’s evident ambiguity towards the Border Protection bills – agreeing, then refusing to support the Coalition’s legislation, and finally buckling under political pressure – was seen as “wishy-washy”. <a href="https://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/search/display/display.w3p;db=CHAMBER;id=chamber/hansardr/2001-09-19/0034;query=Id:%22chamber/hansardr/2001-09-19/0000%22">Claims were made</a>
in parliament that Labor was prepared to put the interests of people smugglers and “illegal immigrants” ahead of Australians.</p>
<h2>September 11</h2>
<p>Within weeks of Tampa, catastrophic terrorist attacks took place in the United States. Howard, in Washington DC at the time, was deeply affected and invoked the 50-year-old ANZUS treaty in support of its ally. </p>
<p>By October, when the <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Parliamentary_Departments/Parliamentary_Library/pubs/rp/rp0102/02rp11#app3">election</a> was called, the public mood had changed. Polls showed the Coalition’s approval ratings now at 50%, compared to Labor’s 35%. Howard’s personal rating was at a five-year high of 61%.</p>
<p>Incumbents enjoy advantages in campaigns. Nevertheless, <a href="https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/9862161?selectedversion=NBD23251549">the Howard government’s political mastery</a> was evident in its ability to reframe the election as a referendum on national security. It created a link between the twin “threats” of terrorism and asylum-seekers in the public’s mind, and asserted its superior national security credentials. </p>
<p>The ALP campaigned well on some issues, but failed to provide a convincing counter-narrative to Howard’s agenda. Howard repeatedly pointed to Opposition Leader Kim Beazley’s ambivalence over the Pacific Solution as proof that he <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/national/beazleys-inner-demons-have-a-lot-to-answer-for-20030701-gdvyv1.html">lacked the “ticker”</a> to be prime minister. </p>
<p>Evidence that the government manipulated the facts surrounding the scandalous “<a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/credibility-overboard-20011108-gdf9oq.html">children overboard</a>” affair did not curb the popular view that dangerous times demanded strong leadership. In the end, <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/elections/federal/2004/guide/summary.htm">the government was re-elected</a> on November 10 with a swing of almost 2%, though barely any seats changed hands.</p>
<h2>National security still on the agenda</h2>
<p>The 2001 election changed Australia. It sealed Howard’s reputation as a strong leader, and gave him six more years in office. Success legitimated his hawkish outlook, and set the policy agenda for almost two decades. Australian troops, already committed to the conflict in Afghanistan as part of the US-led War on Terror, became ensnared in the illegal Iraq war.</p>
<p>Stringent anti-terrorism laws enhanced executive power, undermined civil liberties and alienated Muslim-Australians. Refugees, terrorism and national security remained major issues for both parties, but Labor struggled to establish its own agenda. Legislation to prevent irregular boat arrivals <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/the-boat-that-changed-it-all-20110819-1j2o2.html">hardened into</a> one of the harshest asylum-seeker regimes in the world, polarising public opinion.</p>
<p>Have the dynamics of that political contest dissipated? </p>
<p>In the current campaign, healthcare, climate change and economics have dominated, but the lure of “national security” for electoral advantage is <a href="https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/morrison-sets-test-for-shorten-over-security/news-story/9e50b332be28ac466871631c57d8b932">still difficult to resist</a>. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/state-of-the-states-more-preference-deals-as-pre-polling-begins-116364">State of the states: more preference deals as pre-polling begins</a>
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<p>Many of the policy and political priorities established in 2001 remain intact. Both major parties are committed to offshore processing, mandatory detention and push-backs as deterrent mechanisms for asylum seekers. The fact that <a href="https://www.refugeecouncil.org.au/operation-sovereign-borders-offshore-detention-statistics/2/">915 refugees and asylum-seekers</a> are still languishing on Nauru and Manus Island, confirm that politics, not pragmatism or human rights, still shapes Australian asylum-seeker policy. </p>
<p>The fight against terrorism continues. Extreme right-wing political movements are growing, emboldened by the the politics of hate unleashed in 2001. It is almost 20 years since Tampa and 9/11, but those events continue to cast their shadow over the Australian political landscape.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/115143/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Gwenda Tavan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
The 2001 federal election was a watershed moment for Australian national security that has set a policy agenda for almost two decades.
Gwenda Tavan, Associate Professor, Politics and International Relations, La Trobe University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/110713
2019-03-04T19:03:19Z
2019-03-04T19:03:19Z
How the next Australian government can balance security and compassion for asylum seekers
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/258650/original/file-20190213-90491-j9enr0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Crossbenchers Kerryn Phelps, Julia Banks and Rebekah Sharkie celebrate the passing of the "Medivac" law through the House of Representatives.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP/Lukas Coch</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>This is part of a major series called Advancing Australia, in which leading academics examine the key issues facing Australia in the lead-up to the 2019 federal election and beyond. Read the other pieces in the series <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/advancing-australia-66135">here</a>.</em></p>
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<p>With a rapidly changing climate and increased instability in the world order, patterns of people movement are likely to change dramatically in the future. It is not a tenable response to isolate Australia from the shocks of these changes.</p>
<p>Sadly, the politicisation of refugee policy <a href="https://theconversation.com/australian-politics-explainer-the-mv-tampa-and-the-transformation-of-asylum-seeker-policy-74078">since the Tampa crisis of 2001</a> indicates that our major political parties are incapable of the kind of honest and open decision-making that is required in this complex and vexed policy space. However, the passing of the Kerryn Phelps-<a href="https://theconversation.com/morrison-government-defeated-on-medical-bill-despite-constitution-play-111636">led amendments to the Migration Act</a> to facilitate medical evacuations from Manus Island and Nauru may point to a shift in the nation’s mood on the issue. </p>
<p>In the second half of the 20th century, Australia transformed the idea of itself into a multicultural nation. An important part of this story has been Australia’s contribution to the resettlement of refugees. </p>
<p>Australia was the first country outside Europe to accede to the <a href="https://www.unhcr.org/1951-refugee-convention.html">1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees</a>. Australia was also an early adopter of the <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/EN/ProfessionalInterest/Pages/ProtocolStatusOfRefugees.aspx">1967 protocol</a> that extended the convention beyond Europe. Australia’s generous resettlement of refugees under the convention has reinforced its identity as a nation built on migrants. </p>
<p>Australia’s acceptance of refugees remained uncontroversial while the numbers of refugees could be strictly controlled through its immigration program. The first serious challenge to control was the arrival of <a href="https://www.nma.gov.au/defining-moments/resources/vietnamese-refugees-boat-arrival">boatloads of Vietnamese refugees</a> in 1976. However, the Fraser Coalition government maintained control through an arrangement with South East Asian countries that Australia would resettle a high number of Vietnamese refugees if those countries stopped redirecting boats that arrived on their shores back out to sea. </p>
<h2>How the Tampa changed Australian asylum-seeker policy</h2>
<p>When boats began arriving in larger numbers from 1999 to 2001, the struggling Howard Coalition government used the rescue of 438 asylum seekers by the MV Tampa as an opportunity to implement a more restrictive policy. This included boat turn-backs, offshore processing and detention, and issuing temporary protection visas for people arriving by boat whose applications for asylum were accepted. The boats stopped arriving within months. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/australian-politics-explainer-the-mv-tampa-and-the-transformation-of-asylum-seeker-policy-74078">Australian politics explainer: the MV Tampa and the transformation of asylum-seeker policy</a>
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<p>In 2007, the Labor government dismantled these policy settings. Asylum seekers arriving by boat were rescued at sea and processed on the Australian territory of Christmas Island. If they were found to be refugees, they were granted permanent protection visas. This policy was premised on boat arrivals being at similar levels to those experienced previously. But this proved mistaken. </p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/258060/original/file-20190210-174883-hr9n30.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/258060/original/file-20190210-174883-hr9n30.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/258060/original/file-20190210-174883-hr9n30.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/258060/original/file-20190210-174883-hr9n30.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/258060/original/file-20190210-174883-hr9n30.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/258060/original/file-20190210-174883-hr9n30.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/258060/original/file-20190210-174883-hr9n30.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">The Norwegian cargo ship Tampa collected 438 stranded asylum seekers and changed Australian policy on the issue.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP/Wallenius Wilhelmsen</span></span>
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<p>By 2013, refugee policy was in disarray. In 2012, <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Parliamentary_Departments/Parliamentary_Library/pubs/rp/rp1617/Quick_Guides/BoatTurnbacks">17,204 people arrived by boat</a>, rising to 20,587 in 2013. This far outnumbered the planned refugee intake of 13,750 and reinforced the fear that Australia was in danger of being “swamped” by asylum seekers.</p>
<p>Prior to this rapid rise in boat arrivals, the Labor government had attempted to introduce a <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-07-25/malaysia-signs-refugee-deal/2809512">novel policy response</a>, the Australia-Malaysia asylum-seeker transfer agreement. The Malaysian government agreed to the return to Malaysia of asylum seekers who tried to reach Australia by boat via Indonesia. Malaysia guaranteed housing, education and work rights for these asylum seekers, but also that they would receive no advantage in resolving their application for refugee resettlement. </p>
<p>This arrangement removed the incentive to take a risky boat journey to Australia.
We will never know if it would have stopped the boats, as the High Court held the government did not have the power to implement the arrangement, and the Coalition and the Greens blocked an attempt by the government to amend the Migration Act to provide it with the requisite power. </p>
<p>In mid-2013, the Labor government <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Parliamentary_Departments/Parliamentary_Library/pubs/rp/rp1314/AsylumPolicies">changed direction</a> radically. It committed to offshore processing for the first time, stating categorically that no asylum seeker reaching Australia by boat <a href="https://theconversation.com/no-more-asylum-in-australia-for-those-arriving-by-boat-rudd-16238">would ever be resettled here</a>.</p>
<p>When it was returned to government in 2013, the Abbott Coalition government readily adopted Labor’s policy and added a policy of aggressive boat turn-backs covered in a <a href="https://theconversation.com/should-operations-to-turn-the-boats-around-be-kept-secret-18670">veil of operational secrecy</a>. It also reintroduced temporary protection visas for the 30,000 asylum seekers who had entered Australia during the six years of Labor government. Within a few months, boat arrivals had <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-boats-may-have-stopped-but-at-what-cost-to-australia-30455">ceased completely</a>. </p>
<h2>Asylum-seeker policy becomes a national security issue</h2>
<p>The current Coalition government has successfully cast refugee policy as an issue of border security. The ministers for immigration, first Scott Morrison and then Peter Dutton, have spun a narrative that any softening of the government’s stance on resettlement would risk relaunching a flotilla of boats.</p>
<p>The line they have drawn is breathtaking in its strictness. The government has been unwilling even to accept New Zealand’s offer to resettle <a href="https://www.radionz.co.nz/international/pacific-news/369352/nz-confirms-refugee-offer-is-150-each-year">150 refugees a year</a> from offshore detention for fear they will then have backdoor entry to Australia. It has also made it very difficult for asylum seekers to get emergency medical treatment in Australia. </p>
<p>The government’s narrative of border protection does not acknowledge the human cost of long-term offshore detention. Since detention centres on Nauru and Manus were opened in 2014, <a href="https://www.refugeecouncil.org.au/operation-sovereign-borders-offshore-detention-statistics/">3,127 people</a> have been transferred there. As of early February 2019, as a result of third-country resettlements and voluntary returns, about <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/feb/10/coalition-ministers-fail-to-explain-whether-all-refugees-held-offshore-need-medical-transfer">1,000 remain</a>. The last <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-02-03/nauru-last-asylum-seeker-children-to-leave-detention-pm-says/10774910">children on Nauru</a> were resettled in the US in February 2019. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/as-children-are-airlifted-from-nauru-a-cruel-and-inhumane-policy-may-finally-be-ending-105487">As children are airlifted from Nauru, a cruel and inhumane policy may finally be ending</a>
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<p>Despite strictly controlling access to information from Nauru and Manus, the government has not been able to prevent courageous medical officials bearing witness to the human suffering of refugees. This includes suicides and self-harm, and children simply giving up. It has not been able to prevent Behrouz Boochani using mobile phone messages <a href="https://theconversation.com/book-review-behrouz-boochanis-unsparing-look-at-the-brutality-of-manus-island-101520">to write an award-winning book</a> bearing witness to the official strategies used to break the spirit of refugees on Manus Island. </p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/258059/original/file-20190210-174857-yipo0e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/258059/original/file-20190210-174857-yipo0e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/258059/original/file-20190210-174857-yipo0e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/258059/original/file-20190210-174857-yipo0e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/258059/original/file-20190210-174857-yipo0e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/258059/original/file-20190210-174857-yipo0e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/258059/original/file-20190210-174857-yipo0e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Asylum seeker and journalist Behrouz Boochani wrote the award-winning book No Friend but the Mountains.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Amnesty International handout</span></span>
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<h2>Finding a more humane way forward</h2>
<p>As on so many policy issues facing Australia, we need an honest discussion on refugees. On the one hand, it needs to be acknowledged that refugees are victims of regimes intent on persecuting them and are deserving (and entitled) to our protection. </p>
<p>As a nation, we continue to have a policy of high levels of immigration, and refugees can be a significant part of our strategy for future prosperity. We have a responsibility not to contribute further to people’s suffering, and thus long-term detention of refugees is untenable.</p>
<p>On the other hand, Australians believe they are entitled to determine who is provided access to the benefit of membership in the Australian state. This being the case, refugee policy must be able to control the number of people who are accepted for resettlement. The most effective mechanism of control is to prevent onshore arrivals by boat and plane, and to use planned resettlement from refugee camps in consultation with the UNHCR. </p>
<p>The unprecedented number of boat arrivals in 2012-13 tilted the equation towards control over compassion. However, there is a sensible middle ground more in line with Australian values.</p>
<p>First, it is possible to resettle all the asylum seekers on Nauru and Manus in Australia expeditiously, without triggering large numbers of boat arrivals. This resettlement must be the immediate priority of a new government. It was never envisaged that refugees would spend up to six years in offshore detention.</p>
<p>Retaining the architecture of offshore detention and processing for the future and the possibility of boat turn-backs is more than adequate deterrent to prevent people risking the perilous journey to Australia by boat. The Coalition governments in 2001 and 2013 demonstrated that if this proves to be wrong, introducing a hard-line policy can stop the boats very quickly.</p>
<p>Second, all those refugees on <a href="https://immi.homeaffairs.gov.au/visas/getting-a-visa/visa-listing/temporary-protection-785">Temporary Protection Visas</a> and <a href="https://immi.homeaffairs.gov.au/visas/getting-a-visa/visa-listing/safe-haven-enterprise-790">Safe Haven Enterprise Visas</a> in Australia need to be offered permanent protection. Temporary visas create a huge psychological and social burden on refugees in Australia, with no benefits.</p>
<p>Third, the movement of refugees, particularly from the Middle East, through South East Asia to Australia is a regional problem. The Australian government needs to resume discussions with Indonesia and Malaysia about a more nuanced solution. </p>
<p>With the Coalition cutting through with its narrative of fear of invasion and Labor still spooked by policy failure during its previous term in government, it has taken independent MPs to begin to push Australian refugee policy to a sensible middle ground.</p>
<p>Kerryn Phelps’ amendment to the Migration Act, supported by Labor and the Greens, <a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-how-will-the-medivac-bill-actually-affect-ill-asylum-seekers-111645">provides for</a> the evacuation of asylum seekers and refugees to Australia if two doctors assess that they require medical treatment not available on Nauru or Manus Island. The minister for home affairs retains the power to reject a transfer on security grounds. The law is also limited in its application to refugees already on Nauru and Manus Island. </p>
<p>In parliament, Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Opposition Leader Bill Shorten framed their positions on the “Medivac” law as a test of character. Morrison focused on the importance of “mettle” and “holding the line”. Shorten focused on “compassion” and “balance”. </p>
<p>The passing of the law ensures refugee policy will be a key election issue once again. The Australian people will determine what version of character prevails.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/110713/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alex Reilly receives funding from the Department of Social Services in its National Grants scheme to conduct research into Refugee Women and Work.</span></em></p>
Since the Tampa affair in 2001, successive governments have been anxious to be seen as “hard-line” on asylum seekers, but the cost – to people and the country – has been too high.
Alex Reilly, Director of the Public Law and Policy Research Unit, Adelaide Law School, University of Adelaide
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/112139
2019-02-22T00:11:17Z
2019-02-22T00:11:17Z
2001 polls in review: September 11 influenced election outcome far more than Tampa incident
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/260291/original/file-20190221-195867-1ekh3xj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">John Howard's Coalition won the November 2001 election, but the September 11 attacks had more impact on that outcome than the Tampa crisis.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP/Dean Lewins</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Many commentators have compared Labor’s support for the Medevac legislation with the <a href="https://theconversation.com/australian-politics-explainer-the-mv-tampa-and-the-transformation-of-asylum-seeker-policy-74078">Tampa incident</a> in late August 2001. The implication is that Labor lost the 2001 election due to Tampa, and could lose this year’s election due to Medevac.</p>
<p>Political commentator <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/feb/16/without-facts-we-slide-into-trumpism-the-truth-matters-here?CMP=share_btn_tw">Katharine Murphy</a> has said she was certain at the time Labor leader Kim Beazley “had just lost the election” after announcing Labor would vote against retrospective legislation giving the Coalition government the power to forcibly remove the Tampa from Australian territorial waters.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/australian-politics-explainer-the-mv-tampa-and-the-transformation-of-asylum-seeker-policy-74078">Australian politics explainer: the MV Tampa and the transformation of asylum-seeker policy</a>
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<p>But are the claims that Labor lost the 2001 election due to the Tampa true? <a href="https://www.pollbludger.net/">The Poll Bludger</a>, William Bowe, kindly sent me the polling data for the 1998-2001 term, on which the historical <a href="https://pollbludger.net/images/bludgertrack-historical-2016.png">BludgerTrack</a> is based. BludgerTrack is a bias-adjusted poll aggregate.</p>
<p>I have used this data to create the graph below of the Coalition vs Labor two party preferred vote during 2001. The <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2001_Australian_federal_election">election</a> was on November 10.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/259895/original/file-20190220-148509-1temdbv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/259895/original/file-20190220-148509-1temdbv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=325&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/259895/original/file-20190220-148509-1temdbv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=325&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/259895/original/file-20190220-148509-1temdbv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=325&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/259895/original/file-20190220-148509-1temdbv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=409&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/259895/original/file-20190220-148509-1temdbv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=409&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/259895/original/file-20190220-148509-1temdbv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=409&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">BludgerTrack two party preferred vote during 2001.</span>
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<p>The graph shows that Labor had a massive lead in March 2001 of about 57-43, but it gradually narrowed to about 52-48 by the time Australian <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tampa_affair">government involvement</a> in the Tampa incident began on August 26. The Tampa was denied permission to dock at Christmas Island and deliver asylum seekers who had been rescued.</p>
<p>The Coalition received about a two-point boost from the Tampa affair to draw level with Labor. However, it had a much bigger lift from the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/September_11_attacks">September 11, 2001</a> terrorist attacks, which lifted the Coalition’s vote five points to about a 55-45 lead. As the shock of the attacks wore off, the Coalition’s vote fell back to a 51.0-49.0 victory on election day (November 10).</p>
<p>If the Tampa had occurred in 2001, but not September 11, other issues, such as the economy, health and education, would probably have appealed to people in the lead-up to the election more than boats. Labor could have recovered to an election-winning position. September 11 made national security a huge asset for the Coalition government at the 2001 election.</p>
<p>If not for September 11, Labor may have won the 2001 election. The Tampa put the Coalition into a tie with Labor, not a lead.</p>
<p>Analyst <a href="https://insidestory.org.au/votes-by-the-boatload/">Peter Brent</a> in Inside Story thinks that, given economic factors, the Coalition would probably have won the election by 51-49 without either the Tampa or September 11. You can achieve this result by drawing a line from the Coalition’s nadir in March to the election, with the assumption that the slow improvement in the polls had continued. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/if-beazley-had-become-prime-minister-instead-of-rudd-might-we-have-had-more-stable-government-87765">If Beazley had become prime minister instead of Rudd, might we have had more stable government?</a>
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<p>However, the graph shows the Coalition’s recovery had stalled for over a month before the Tampa. Even though the September 11 shock had faded by the election, the boost it gave to the importance of the Coalition strength of national security assisted the Coalition at the election.</p>
<p>Labor did not lose the 2001 election because of the Tampa, and they are unlikely to lose the 2019 election because of their support for the Medevac bill. I believe the shock factor of terrorist incidents has been reduced by their frequency. There were <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2017_United_Kingdom_general_election#Background">two terrorist atrocities</a> shortly before the 2017 UK general election, yet UK Labour performed <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2017_United_Kingdom_general_election">much better than expected</a> at that election.</p>
<h2>Eight UK Labour and three Conservatives MPs form new Independent Group</h2>
<p>On Monday, <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/world/europe/labour-centrists-quit-party-recalling-failed-80s-experiment-20190218-p50ynq.html">seven UK Labour MPs</a> resigned from their party to form The Independent Group. In the next two days, another Labour MP and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/feb/20/tory-mps-defect-independent-group-soubry-allen-wollaston">three Conservative MPs</a> also resigned to join The Independent Group.</p>
<p>While other causes, such as alleged antisemitism within Labour, have been cited, the reason these defections have happened now is Brexit. The defecting MPs are strongly opposed to their former party’s handling of Brexit, and all want a second referendum on Brexit – currently opposed by both major parties.</p>
<p>The Independent Group MPs have consistently voted in favour of proposals to avoid a “no deal” Brexit when the UK leaves the European Union on March 29. However, these MPs votes will not change. To avoid a no deal, either other MPs votes must change, or the major parties need to reach a compromise. The next important Brexit votes will be on February 27. The article I wrote on my <a href="http://adrianbeaumont.net/no-deal-brexit-more-likely-after-theresa-mays-crushing-loss-in-brexit-deal-vote/">personal website</a> in January about why a no deal Brexit is a plausible scenario is still relevant.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/112139/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Adrian Beaumont does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
It is often thought that the Tampa incident won John Howard the 2001 election, but an analysis of polling from the time shows the September 11 attacks had a far bigger impact on voting intentions.
Adrian Beaumont, Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/78763
2017-06-16T03:42:35Z
2017-06-16T03:42:35Z
As Trump ups the ante, executive powers should worry Australians too
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/173481/original/file-20170613-9404-9z24qs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The executive government in Australia has more power than most people realise, especially when it comes to immigration.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/codydildy/2642025303/">Cody Austin/flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>This article is part of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/democracy-futures">Democracy Futures</a> series, a <a href="http://sydneydemocracynetwork.org/democracy-futures/">joint global initiative</a> between The Conversation and the <a href="http://sydneydemocracynetwork.org/">Sydney Democracy Network</a>. The project aims to stimulate fresh thinking about the many challenges facing democracies in the 21st century.</em></p>
<hr>
<p>The US president’s executive powers are a crucial way to fast-track immigration policies without congressional approval. But with Donald Trump’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-what-are-executive-orders-and-what-force-do-they-have-in-us-politics-72088">executive orders</a> barring entry to people from selected countries, these powers are taking on a new flavour.</p>
<p>While we like to think we live in a democracy with a strong separation of powers, in both Australia and the US the executive government has more power than most people realise – especially when it comes to immigration.</p>
<p>In some respects, executive powers are greater in Australia than in the US. In Australia, executive orders relating to immigration are not subject to the same checks and balances as they would be in the US. There are a few reasons for this. </p>
<h2>Differences in transparency</h2>
<p>In the US, all executive orders must be published in the <a href="https://www.federalregister.gov/executive-orders">federal register</a>, the official journal of the federal government. This at least makes them visible to Congress and to the general public. </p>
<p>In Australia, there is no such obligation. A good <a href="https://theconversation.com/operation-sovereign-borders-dignified-silence-or-diminishing-democracy-21294">example of this</a> is the immigration minister’s 2013 order authorising “turn-back” operations against vessels carrying asylum seekers as part of Operation Sovereign Borders.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/172209/original/file-20170605-31034-tq5vra.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/172209/original/file-20170605-31034-tq5vra.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/172209/original/file-20170605-31034-tq5vra.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=363&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/172209/original/file-20170605-31034-tq5vra.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=363&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/172209/original/file-20170605-31034-tq5vra.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=363&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/172209/original/file-20170605-31034-tq5vra.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=456&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/172209/original/file-20170605-31034-tq5vra.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=456&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/172209/original/file-20170605-31034-tq5vra.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=456&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">As immigration minister, Scott Morrison wouldn’t release his order authorising turn-backs of asylum-seeker boats.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asylum_in_Australia#/media/File:Scott_Morrison_Malaysian_Maritime_Enforcement_Agency_2014.jpg">DFAT</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The order was released only after a three-year <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2017/apr/03/details-of-australias-asylum-seeker-turnback-operations-released-in-foi-battle">Freedom of Information battle</a> initiated by Guardian journalist Paul Farrell. Even then, the details of the turn-back operations were redacted or not released on public interest grounds. </p>
<p>In Australia, the public and the courts may not even be aware of the orders being implemented. That means Australians are unable to scrutinise executive orders to the same extent as Americans can. This, in turn, limits the people’s ability to lodge effective legal actions against the government, as they lack the information to build a case. </p>
<h2>Australia lacks a bill of rights</h2>
<p>A second major difference is that Australia does not have a bill of rights, unlike the US. The US Bill of Rights is constitutionally entrenched as the first ten amendments to the US Constitution. </p>
<p>The success in striking down Trump’s recent executive orders relied upon two main provisions: the <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/fifth_amendment">Fifth Amendment Due Process Clause</a>, which requires a fair trial and prohibits the government indefinitely detaining people, and the <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/first_amendment">First Amendment Establishment Clause</a>, which has been interpreted as prohibiting discrimination based on religion. </p>
<p>Australia’s lack of such protections (constitutional or otherwise) stymies similar legal actions. Still, the Australian government can’t do whatever it wants with immigration. In the absence of legislative authorisation, actions of the executive will only be authorised to the extent they fall under the executive power set out in <a href="http://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Senate/Powers_practice_n_procedures/Constitution/chapter2">Section 61</a> of the Australian Constitution. </p>
<p>However, the precise scope of this power remains a matter of contention. Judges have generally been highly deferential in terms of what immigration measures they uphold.</p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/high-court-asylum-case-pits-the-executive-against-the-judiciary-28956">The Tampa affair</a> in 2001 provides a good example. The MV Tampa, a Norwegian freighter, rescued 433 asylum seekers from a vessel in distress in international waters north of Australia. </p>
<p>When the captain attempted to bring them to Australia, the prime minister, John Howard, ordered special forces to storm the vessel. The asylum seekers were detained at sea for several weeks and later sent to Nauru and New Zealand. </p>
<p>While there was no legislative basis for this decision, the full bench of the Federal Court <a href="http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/cases/cth/federal_ct/2001/1329.html">upheld</a> the action. The decision was based on a broad interpretation of executive powers in the constitution. The High Court has avoided a clear judgment on this issue in <a href="http://www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/sinodisp/au/cases/cth/HCA/2015/1.html?stem=0&synonyms=0&query=CPCF">subsequent decisions</a>.</p>
<h2>Trump tests limits of executive power</h2>
<p>In contrast, consider the fate of a series of <a href="https://theconversation.com/trumps-immigration-order-is-bad-foreign-policy-72053">executive orders</a> issued by President Trump. The most controversial include a 90-day travel ban on people from Iraq, Iran, Syria, Libya, Yemen, Somalia and Sudan, and a 120-day suspension of the refugee resettlement program. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2017/02/01/2017-02281/protecting-the-nation-from-foreign-terrorist-entry-into-the-united-states">original order</a>, issued just seven days after Trump’s inauguration, caused panic and chaos at airports all over the world.</p>
<p>Both measures were claimed to be necessary for the purpose of designing <a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2016/08/16/politics/how-us-vets-immigrants-donald-trump-extreme-vetting/">“extreme vetting”</a> procedures to identify and exclude Islamic extremists. No evidence was provided to show how countries were selected, or why existing procedures were inadequate. Nor were the relevant government departments and agencies consulted in advance.</p>
<p>After just one week, the order was <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/federal-judge-temporarily-blocks-trumps-immigration-order-nationwide/2017/02/03/9b734e1c-ea54-11e6-bf6f-301b6b443624_story.html?utm_term=.9773dae7847a">suspended</a>. A federal judge in Washington state issued a temporary nationwide restraining order. </p>
<p>The decision was based on two constitutional concerns. The first related to due process considerations arising from barring entry to US visa holders without providing them with notice or a hearing. The second was rooted in the prohibition of discrimination based on religion. </p>
<p>While the executive order did not specifically say it targeted Muslims, the court put two and two together, and found the measures discriminatory. The countries subject to the ban were all principally Muslim, and during his campaign Trump had <a href="https://www.rt.com/usa/325046-trump-muslim-ban-usa/">promised</a> a “total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States”.</p>
<p>The Trump administration responded by issuing a <a href="https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2017/03/09/2017-04837/protecting-the-nation-from-foreign-terrorist-entry-into-the-united-states">new executive order</a>. This order provided more information justifying why nationals from the selected countries presented a heightened security risk. </p>
<p>The number of target countries was also reduced to six, with Iraq being removed, and permanent US residents were exempt. It was the inclusion of US residents in the original ban that had raised the most serious concerns about due process.</p>
<p>Despite these concessions, the courts also suspended the updated executive order. Appeals are <a href="https://theconversation.com/trump-loses-appeal-but-travel-ban-fight-isnt-over-yet-72648">pending</a>. The outcome will depend on how the courts apply the long-standing “<a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/10/testing-federal-power-over-immigration/505232/">plenary power</a>” doctrine that gives the political branches a broad and largely exclusive authority over immigration. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"871143765473406976"}"></div></p>
<p>In the past, the courts have used this doctrine to uphold discriminatory immigration laws, which would have been unconstitutional in other contexts. This applies particularly to laws targeting immigrants who are outside the US. However, recent decisions indicate that the scope of the <a href="https://www.justsecurity.org/36988/muslim-ban-held-unconstitutional-myth-unconstrained-immigration-power/">plenary power may be narrowing</a>.</p>
<p>Trump’s other executive orders on immigration have largely flown under the radar. <a href="https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2017/01/30/2017-02095/border-security-and-immigration-enforcement-improvements">The Executive Order on Border Security</a> authorises construction of a wall on the Mexican border and <a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2017/02/18/politics/kelly-guidance-on-immigration-and-border-security/">expands</a> the use of mandatory immigration detention. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2017/01/30/2017-02102/enhancing-public-safety-in-the-interior-of-the-united-states">The Executive Order on Interior Enforcement</a> punishes “<a href="http://time.com/4797381/texas-anti-sanctuary-city-bill-protests/">sanctuary cities</a>”, or municipalities that are unco-operative with federal authorities in enforcing immigration laws. It also extends the list of non-citizens prioritised for deportation.</p>
<h2>Other than court action, what protections are there?</h2>
<p>In Australia, protections are provided first and foremost through parliamentary representation, an approach informed by Australia’s British constitutional history. </p>
<p>The government of the day sits in parliament with the assumption that an executive that fails to act in the interests of the public can be thrown out of office at the next general election. The Senate, which is not always dominated by the government of the day, can offer oversight as well.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, these protections don’t always work. New arrivals can’t vote. Even if they become citizens, refugees remain a minority and have little influence over election results. It’s also naive to assume that all waves of migrants operate as a cohesive voting bloc. </p>
<p>The immigration executive can also avoid Senate oversight. Operation Sovereign Borders again provides an instructive example. In 2013, citing national security concerns, the minister refused the Senate’s request for information. </p>
<p>Furthermore, as a result of the way that <a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-how-australia-decides-who-is-a-genuine-refugee-72574">refugee politics</a> has unfolded in Australia, there is bipartisan support for draconian policies. The executive is unco-operative and the Senate does not always punish non-compliance. </p>
<p>For instance, when the minister refused to provide information about Operation Sovereign Borders, a <a href="http://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate/Legal_and_Constitutional_Affairs/Public_Interest_Immunity/Report/index">Senate committee</a> recommended “political” and “procedural” penalties. None of these were carried out.</p>
<p>The parliament is also often willing to retrospectively authorise immigration-related actions once judicial proceedings have begun. This happened during the recent <a href="http://www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/sinodisp/au/cases/cth/HCA/2016/1.html?stem=0&synonyms=0&query=M68">High Court challenge</a> to the executive’s power to have asylum seekers detained on Nauru. </p>
<p>Once court proceedings were initiated, <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/C2015A00104">legislation</a> was swiftly introduced with bipartisan support to retrospectively authorise the government’s action. A similar approach was taken to <a href="http://www.kaldorcentre.unsw.edu.au/news/tampa-affair-15-years">validate actions during the Tampa affair</a>.</p>
<p>So, as the world reacts with shock each time Trump issues another far-reaching executive order, it is worth remembering that the use of executive power in Australia is, in many ways, more expansive and unchecked than in the US. This is not limited to immigration. Australian courts have been willing to take an expansive view of executive power in a <a href="http://www.aph.gov.au/%7E/%7E/link.aspx?_id=C8C131542382464EB28135A33F9EA201&_z=z">whole host of policy areas</a>.</p>
<p>Both the Australian and the US public need to remain vigilant. Tolerance of the executive’s attack on the rights of non-citizens threatens to pave the way for similar action against citizens.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/78763/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Anna Boucher receives funding from the Australian Research Council that is unassociated with this current article. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Daniel Ghezelbash does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Under US law, the president must publish all of their executive orders for public view. The Australian government is under no such obligation.
Anna Boucher, Senior Lecturer in Public Policy and Political Science, University of Sydney
Daniel Ghezelbash, Lecturer, Macquarie Law School, Macquarie University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/74078
2017-04-27T03:37:03Z
2017-04-27T03:37:03Z
Australian politics explainer: the MV Tampa and the transformation of asylum-seeker policy
<p><em>The Conversation is running a <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/australian-politics-explainer-37192">series of explainers</a> on key moments in Australian political history, looking at what happened, its impact then, and its relevance to politics today.</em></p>
<hr>
<p>Some time before August 23 2001, a small Indonesian fishing boat, the KM Palapa 1, left Indonesia en route to Christmas Island with 438 asylum seekers aboard.</p>
<p>Like many before them, the asylum seekers hoped to reach Australia and apply for permanent protection visas. The Palapa’s engines failed in international waters between Indonesia and Australia, and it lay stranded for many days.</p>
<p>On August 26, the MV Tampa, a Norwegian cargo ship en route from Fremantle to Singapore, answered a call from the Australian Coast Guard and rescued the crew and passengers of the Palapa. Makeshift accommodation and bathrooms were organised on the open deck. Pregnant women were among the passengers. </p>
<p>A delegation of five asylum seekers was taken to see the Tampa’s captain, Arne Rhinnan. They pleaded to be taken to Christmas Island (four hours away) and threatened to jump ship if they were returned to Indonesia (11 hours away). Rhinnan told the coast guard he planned to take the rescuees to Christmas Island, which was duly noted. </p>
<p>However, some hours later, Neville Nixon of the Department of Immigration contacted Rhinnan to inform him that the Tampa was not to enter Australian waters – and if it did so, Rhinnan risked imprisonment and fines of up to A$110,000. </p>
<h2>What was its impact?</h2>
<p>It was the prime minister, John Howard, who decided to prevent the Tampa entering Australia. The decision heralded the beginning of a new, executive-led change in policy, which has been the underlying basis of the approach to asylum seekers attempting to reach Australia by boat ever since.</p>
<p>When the 438 asylum seekers left Indonesia on the Palapa, Australia’s policy was to rescue asylum seekers at sea and detain them in Australia while their claims for protection were processed. If their claims were successful, they would be released into the community on permanent protection visas. If they weren’t, they would be returned to their country of origin.</p>
<p>On October 8, six weeks after the Tampa was told it could not enter Australian waters, the Palapa survivors were forcibly removed from the HMAS Manoora onto Nauru. In the intervening period, the Australian government had introduced a policy of boat turnbacks. </p>
<p>The ability to construct and implement this policy less than three months out from an election was an extraordinary achievement of the Howard government, particularly given it involved complex negotiations with a foreign country (Nauru).</p>
<p>Also in this six-week period, ten more boats (now labelled Suspected Illegal Entry Vessels, or SIEVs) attempted to reach Christmas Island. It was a period of high drama. The Australian Navy was under orders to forcibly return boats to Indonesia under Operation Relex. </p>
<p>Several boats sank under navy observation. Despite the best efforts of navy personnel to rescue asylum seekers flailing in the open sea, many people drowned. In the case of SIEV-4, cabinet ministers seized on a navy communication feed that children were being thrown overboard. They immediately made the allegation public; Howard and his immigration minister declared these were not the type of people Australia wanted.</p>
<p>The government maintained its reliance on unverified naval intelligence right up to the federal election on November 10, without providing the navy with an opportunity to correct the record. This politicisation of navy information was the <a href="http://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate/Former_Committees/maritimeincident/report/index">subject of a Senate inquiry</a> in the next parliament.</p>
<p>Boats ceased arriving altogether after SIEV-10 sank on October 19, killing more than 350 of its 400 passengers. </p>
<p>The exact circumstances of the sinking of SIEV-10 remain uncertain. There can be little doubt, however, that its sinking had a significant deterrent effect on asylum seekers in Indonesia considering the journey to Christmas Island by boat.</p>
<h2>What are its contemporary implications?</h2>
<p>At the time of the Tampa incident, the government’s new policy of boat turnbacks seemed extreme.</p>
<p>However, the government ran a highly successful campaign claiming that the policy was necessary to control Australia’s borders and keep the nation safe, particularly in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks.</p>
<p>The government kept strict control of information. It withheld information about navy operations involving asylum seekers at sea and restricted the access of journalists to Nauru and Christmas Island. It also downplayed the effect of offshore detention on the mental and physical health of asylum seekers, and cast rescuees as undeserving of Australia’s protection – and potentially a risk to security. </p>
<p>The Rudd Labor government ended the Howard government’s asylum-seeker policy in 2007. Offshore detention centres were closed; boat turnbacks ceased. But, from 2010 to 2013, boats began arriving in unprecedented numbers, and Tony Abbott and the Coalition were elected on a platform that included “stopping the boats”. </p>
<p>The Abbott government introduced a new policy mirroring the post-Tampa policy – which included an added sting introduced by the Rudd government prior to the 2013 election that no asylum seeker arriving by boat and processed in an offshore detention centre would ever be resettled in Australia. </p>
<p>This present-day asylum-seeker policy has bipartisan support. It is a direct legacy of the Howard government’s decision to refuse entry to the Tampa in August 2001.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/74078/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alex Reilly does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
The Tampa incident in 2001 has formed the underlying basis of the approach to asylum seekers attempting to reach Australia by boat ever since.
Alex Reilly, Deputy Dean and Director of the Public Law and Policy Research Unit, Adelaide Law School, University of Adelaide
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/66638
2016-10-14T00:06:26Z
2016-10-14T00:06:26Z
From Tampa to now: how reporting on asylum seekers has been a triumph of spin over substance
<p>This year marks the 15th anniversary of one of the most divisive national election campaigns in Australia’s recent history: <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/archives/80days/stories/2012/01/19/3412121.htm">the Tampa affair</a>.</p>
<p>Coming just weeks after the September 11 terror attacks, the pitched battle between John Howard and Kim Beazley drew heavily on fear and panic. The divisions of 2001 are not only still with us, but they are far deeper today.</p>
<p>The September 11 terrorist attacks in the US were given a sharp-knife twist here in Australia. The country was still entangled in <a href="https://theconversation.com/julian-burnside-alienation-to-alien-nation-18290">the issue of the MV Tampa</a> and its cargo of more than 400 desperate asylum seekers. And there was a public outcry over the events surrounding the interception of the SIEV-4 and its 223 asylum seekers – some of whom, politicians claimed, <a href="http://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate/Former_Committees/scrafton/report/c02">had thrown their children overboard</a>.</p>
<p>The way the media frames public debate on asylum seekers and their impact on Australia was forged in this time. Three key strategies helped achieve this.</p>
<h2>Shut down news channels</h2>
<p>Today, news media largely relies on whistleblowers and feeds to compliant reporters to get information about offshore asylum-seeker detention centres.</p>
<p>What would normally pass for news sources in relation to non-security-sensitive state facilities have been more or less closed off. Journalists, other than a select few, are banned from detention centres.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/C2015B00010">Legislation</a> was enacted in 2015 to <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/doctors-and-teachers-gagged-under-new-immigration-laws-20150603-ghft05.html">clamp the mouths of everyone</a> who comes into contact with asylum seekers on Manus Island and on Nauru, with possible jail time hanging over offenders.</p>
<p>The genesis for this remarkable attack on the Fourth Estate might be traced to October 9, 2001. </p>
<p>On that day, Naval Commander Norman Banks gave a phone interview to Channel Ten from the deck of the HMAS Adelaide. The Adelaide was the vessel involved in rescuing those from SIEV-4 who would later be deemed to have been throwing children overboard. </p>
<p>With both the journalist and the naval officer unaware of the children overboard claims that were to come, Banks sought to humanise the asylum seekers with <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/mediawatch/stories/220402_s2.htm">lines like</a>: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>It was quite a joy to hold the little kids’ hands and watch them smile. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>This, in the wake of the children overboard allegations and in the context of the looming election, brought a seminal shift in government-media relations on the issue of forced migration. </p>
<p>According to a subsequent <a href="http://www.aph.gov.au/%7E/media/wopapub/senate/committee/maritime_incident_ctte/submissions/sub13_pdf.ashx">press gallery submission</a> to a Senate inquiry on the incident in 2002 (that is, well after the election):</p>
<blockquote>
<p>[O]fficials suffered such harassment and haranguing from the [defence] minister’s staff … that by the time the HMAS Adelaide SIEV-4 incident occurred, defence [department] media had been cowed.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>It’s virtually impossible today to get media access to border patrol vessels involved in asylum seeker interventions. Seemingly, still harassed and harangued, no-one speaks.</p>
<h2>Do not humanise asylum seekers</h2>
<p>As with the treatment of Banks in the children overboard case, allowing asylum seekers any degree of human context is frowned upon. </p>
<p>As the 2001 election campaign rolled on, and the asylum-seeker issue morphed politically into one of border security, no asylum-seeker voices were heard in mainstream news media. No real engagement between the usually generous Australian people and asylum seekers was allowed.</p>
<p>One of the most significant blows in this strategic layout was Howard’s <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxlunUpz-Nc">election launch speech</a>. In a rare show of emotion, he railed:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>We will decide who comes to this country and the circumstances in which they come.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The use of the royal “we”, in a context of dehumanised asylum seekers was a political master stroke. It set the battle lines to us versus them. “We” became not the government, but “us”, all of us, and therefore not them. It was border security in words. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://theconversation.com/calling-a-boat-person-a-spade-australias-asylum-seeker-rhetoric-19367">subsequent use of terms</a> like “illegals”, “queue-jumpers”, “economic migrants” and “boat people” underscores the characterisation.</p>
<h2>Ensure a government monopoly</h2>
<p>In 2001, the asylum-seeker issue quickly became centred on government action and policy, not lives at sea or a human rights crisis. </p>
<p>Within weeks of the children overboard claims, Howard placed a media blackout on all related outreach from anyone not directly connected to, and holding, the narrow government line.</p>
<p>According to journalists David Marr and Marian Wilkinson, <a href="https://books.google.com.au/books/about/Dark_Victory.html?id=pQQ8E8RvlxAC">there were</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>… no press briefings from the military on operational detail: no maps, no photographs, no Q&As.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The only photos or videos released were those purporting to show children being thrown overboard.</p>
<p>This strategy worked to starve media of anything other than government output. Given the scale of the issue in an election news blitz, and given the “war on terror” that had been paired with the asylum-seeker issue, the need for copy was acute. News media had no choice but to report the bland, uninformative government press releases.</p>
<h2>Politics over people</h2>
<p>Fifteen years ago, public relations began to overtake policy in relation to asylum seekers. As Marr and Wilkinson <a href="https://books.google.com.au/books/about/Dark_Victory.html?id=pQQ8E8RvlxAC">argue</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Potential mission failure leading to negative PR was an early issue of concern in the planning of the operation [to turn back boats].</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The Howard government won re-election in November 2001, via a nod, some argue, to Pauline Hanson’s anti-asylum seeker views. Hanson’s One Nation won no seats in 2001. But in 2016, it returned four senators on the back of anti-asylum seeker and <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-09-14/one-nation-senator-pauline-hanson-makes-first-speech-to-senate/7845150">anti-immigration</a> policies. </p>
<p>Since 2001, both of Australia’s major political parties have shifted to harsher stances on asylum seekers. A sizeable portion of the electorate wants something harder still, driven by the PR-over-policy narrative we have been obliged to endure.</p>
<p>Australia has certainly come a long way in the last 15 years. Knowing how we got here might help us get back.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/66638/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>James Rose does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
How do the media management strategies devised in haste 15 years ago affect how asylum seekers are portrayed today?
James Rose, Sessional Instructor, Journalism, Griffith University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/62705
2016-07-28T19:51:05Z
2016-07-28T19:51:05Z
Friday essay: worth a thousand words – how photos shape attitudes to refugees
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/132091/original/image-20160727-7041-1f1k6qe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Photos of beaming young asylum-seekers with their families aboard HMAS Adelaide in October 2001 told a completely different story to the government's spurious 'children overboard' claims. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Courtesy Project SafeCom, Jack H Smit.</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Over the last two decades we have seen the unprecedented politicisation of immigration. Many Australians remember the wave of immigration after World War II when our rapidly developing industrialised economy addressed its labour shortage. Yet, like many Western countries, since the end of the Cold War we have worked to prevent refugees from seeking asylum by making our borders impenetrable.</p>
<p>Today, we distinguish between migrants, who arrive via our Migration Program (currently up to 190,000 places per year), and refugees, admitted through our Humanitarian Program, (<a href="http://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/download/media/pressrel/4540865/upload_binary/4540865.pdf;fileType=application%2Fpdf#search=%22media/pressrel/4540865%22">providing 13,750 places in 2016-2017</a>). Migrants make <a href="http://www.ssi.org.au/faqs/refugee-faqs/148-what-is-the-difference-between-a-refugee-and-a-migrant">a conscious choice</a> to seek a better life elsewhere. Refugees are forced to leave their country because of persecution.</p>
<p>Photography has mapped a distinctively Australian version of this global story. Once migrants were represented as complex, vulnerable, diverse people, as in David Moore’s iconic 1966 photograph, Migrants arriving in Sydney. This image allows us to empathise with the fear, anxiety and hope felt by newcomers, poised between old and new, tradition and change.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/132082/original/image-20160726-7045-7zu18w.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/132082/original/image-20160726-7045-7zu18w.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=367&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/132082/original/image-20160726-7045-7zu18w.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=367&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/132082/original/image-20160726-7045-7zu18w.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=367&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/132082/original/image-20160726-7045-7zu18w.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=461&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/132082/original/image-20160726-7045-7zu18w.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=461&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/132082/original/image-20160726-7045-7zu18w.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=461&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">David Moore Migrants arriving in Sydney 1966, gelatin silver photograph.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Art Gallery of NSW, gift of the artist 1997 © Lisa, Michael, Matthew and Joshua Moore</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>By contrast, today the Australian government seeks to suppress photographs of asylum seekers, seemingly from fear that such images will prompt empathy with them and undermine border security policy. As asylum seekers have come to be widely viewed as a security threat, refugee policy has been militarised, displacing attention from the situation of those attempting to reach Australia to their supposed menace to our way of life.</p>
<h2>The power of photos</h2>
<p>Researchers have long debated the impact and ethics of photographs of those very far away or different from ourselves – how do such representations allow us to empathise with their subjects’ plight? Do our responses to such photos prompt political or social change? Or, after a moment of compassion or shame, do these feelings simply subside, letting us return to business as usual and thereby reinforcing the status quo? </p>
<p>Clearly, Australian government and military officials believe, very deeply, in the power of such imagery to undermine – or conversely, support – their agenda. </p>
<p>Two episodes in our recent history reveal the power of photography to shape attitudes and influence public debate. The first is 2001, the year of the Tampa incident, Children Overboard, and the Pacific Solution. The second is the increased border protection measures introduced by the Abbott government from 2013, still in place today.</p>
<p>During the late 1990s, increasing numbers of people attempted to travel to Australia by boat to seek asylum, including Afghanis, many being members of the persecuted Hazara minority. In August 2001, the Norwegian vessel MV Tampa rescued 438 mostly Afghan refugees from their sinking boat, around four hours from the Australian territory of Christmas Island. </p>
<p>The Australian government blocked the Tampa from landing on Christmas Island. Indonesia, which had not ratified the 1951 Convention on Refugees, refused to receive them. When the Tampa entered Australian waters without permission, the Australian military intervened. After much delay, the refugees were taken to Nauru.</p>
<p>Australian citizens’ understanding of these remote events was necessarily highly mediated. A review carried out by <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10361146.2013.840769">researchers from the University of Queensland</a> examined the visual representation of asylum seekers on the front pages of two prominent Australian newspapers at this time – The Australian and the Sydney Morning Herald.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/132281/original/image-20160728-21574-1hwmo3t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/132281/original/image-20160728-21574-1hwmo3t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/132281/original/image-20160728-21574-1hwmo3t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/132281/original/image-20160728-21574-1hwmo3t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/132281/original/image-20160728-21574-1hwmo3t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/132281/original/image-20160728-21574-1hwmo3t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/132281/original/image-20160728-21574-1hwmo3t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The boat carrying asylum seekers pulls up alongside the Tampa.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wallenius Wilhelmsen/AAP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Their analysis showed the predominance of pictures of boats, mostly from a distance, as well as those depicting asylum seekers as large groups (42%). In contrast, there was a striking lack of images showing individual asylum seekers with clearly recognisable facial features (only 2%). </p>
<p>The researchers concluded that the effect of this pattern was to dehumanise refugees and frame the refugee “problem” as a potential threat that demanded mechanisms of security and border control. </p>
<p>Perhaps the most widely circulated image from this crisis was an aerial view of the Tampa showing the rescued refugees sitting on the deck in rows, in a space defined by shipping containers. Powerful as it was, this image did not show a single human being’s face.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/131942/original/image-20160726-31171-he5nn5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/131942/original/image-20160726-31171-he5nn5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/131942/original/image-20160726-31171-he5nn5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/131942/original/image-20160726-31171-he5nn5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/131942/original/image-20160726-31171-he5nn5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/131942/original/image-20160726-31171-he5nn5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/131942/original/image-20160726-31171-he5nn5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Asylum seekers on board the Tampa.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wallenius Wilhelmsen/AAP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Following the Tampa incident, a new border protection initiative titled Operation Relex implemented a restrictive public affairs plan that tightly regulated the collection and circulation of information and images. </p>
<p>The Director-General of Defence Communication Strategies, Brian Humphreys, later testified to the Senate Select Committee on a Certain Maritime Incident that Defence Minister Peter Reith had <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/binaries/senate/committee/maritime_incident_ctte/report/report.pdf">explicitly instructed personnel</a>, “Don’t humanize the refugees”.</p>
<p>The inquiry concluded that this restrictive public affairs plan intended to retain “absolute control” of the facts, </p>
<blockquote>
<p>to ensure that no imagery that could conceivably garner sympathy or cause misgiving about the aggressive new border protection regime would find its way into the public domain. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Visual theorists express concerns about the ethical use of images of suffering. They argue that such images exploit their subjects by violating their privacy or showing them as abject and less-than-human. In addition, there are well-grounded fears that identifying individuals may render them vulnerable to persecution in their home countries.</p>
<p>However, the complete suppression of images by the state also acts to erase the social experience of suffering. In this way, the absent image may be as powerful, and terrifying in its effects, as images of suffering.</p>
<h2>Empathy overboard</h2>
<p>John Howard’s government did, however, make active use of photographs to advance its agenda at this time. In October 2001, in the immediate lead-up to a federal election, a boat designated Suspected Illegal Entry Vessel 4, carrying 223 asylum seekers, was intercepted by HMAS Adelaide north of Christmas Island, and then sank. </p>
<p>Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock claimed that passengers had thrown children overboard as a means of forcing the Australian navy to rescue them. Defence Minister Peter Reith and the prime minster repeated this claim, and on 10 October released photographs that supposedly proved it. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/131943/original/image-20160726-23383-1t6ab63.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/131943/original/image-20160726-23383-1t6ab63.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/131943/original/image-20160726-23383-1t6ab63.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/131943/original/image-20160726-23383-1t6ab63.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/131943/original/image-20160726-23383-1t6ab63.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/131943/original/image-20160726-23383-1t6ab63.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/131943/original/image-20160726-23383-1t6ab63.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An October 8, 2001 file photo of video footage of refugees being rescued in seas off Christmas Island by defence personnel from HMAS Adelaide.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Defence PR/AAP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>However, journalist Virginia Trioli challenged their status as proof during a radio interview with Reith, pointing out</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Mr Reith, there’s nothing in this photo that indicates these people either jumped or were thrown? </p>
</blockquote>
<p><a href="http://www.abc.net.au/local/stories/2011/07/07/3263420.htm">Reith responded</a></p>
<blockquote>
<p>Well, quite frankly, if you don’t accept that, you don’t accept anything I say … they are clear as day. A mother and her presumably son, aged seven or eight clearly in the water and clearly being assisted by a female member of the Royal Australian Navy … Now, we have a number of people, obviously RAN people who were there who reported the children were thrown into the water.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>However a later Senate inquiry found, on the basis of evidence provided by senior Navy personnel, that the photographs offered as evidence of children thrown overboard on 7 October were actually pictures taken the following day, 8 October, while SIEV 4 was sinking.</p>
<p>The inquiry concluded that the Howard government had deliberately told lies about these events and suppressed the truth for political purposes.</p>
<h2>A different picture</h2>
<p>In mid-2003, meanwhile, an anonymous source published photographs of the rescued asylum seekers taken by Navy personnel aboard HMAS Adelaide in October 2001. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/132081/original/image-20160726-7064-w6vnc2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/132081/original/image-20160726-7064-w6vnc2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/132081/original/image-20160726-7064-w6vnc2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/132081/original/image-20160726-7064-w6vnc2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/132081/original/image-20160726-7064-w6vnc2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/132081/original/image-20160726-7064-w6vnc2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/132081/original/image-20160726-7064-w6vnc2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Aboard the HMAS Adelaide.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Courtesy Project SafeCom, Jack H Smit.</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>These photographs show how these rescued people responded aboard the navy vessel. Note the good health and happiness of the children. Imagine the effects on the Australian public in October 2001 of seeing these happy, relieved families: would our political history have been different?</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/132076/original/image-20160726-12749-10vu7oa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/132076/original/image-20160726-12749-10vu7oa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/132076/original/image-20160726-12749-10vu7oa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/132076/original/image-20160726-12749-10vu7oa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/132076/original/image-20160726-12749-10vu7oa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/132076/original/image-20160726-12749-10vu7oa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/132076/original/image-20160726-12749-10vu7oa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Children drinking milk.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Courtesy Project SafeCom, Jack H Smit.</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The Howard government’s response to the “children overboard” affair was “The Pacific Solution” – establishing Nauru and Manus Island as offshore processing centres. According to <a href="http://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Parliamentary_Departments/ParliamentaryLibrary/pubs/rp/rp1516/Quick_Guides/BoatTurnbacks">a report compiled by parliamentary library staff</a> using a variety of official sources, the policy was effective in halting boat arrivals in 2001.</p>
<p>With the election of the Rudd government in 2007, after six years of operation, Manus was closed. However a sharp rise in arrivals of asylum seekers by boat up to 2012 led to the re-opening of offshore processing centres under then-Prime Minister Julia Gillard. </p>
<p>In October 2011, meanwhile, the Department of Immigration and Citizenship announced a new media policy designed to control media access to asylum seekers. A key part of this policy was to regulate the use of images and, in particular, to <a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/inquirer/privacy-or-censorship/story-e6frg6z6-1226235957485">prevent journalists from showing the faces of asylum seekers</a>, justified as protecting the individual’s identity. This policy <a href="https://www.border.gov.au/newsandmedia/Documents/media-access-deed-of-agreement.pdf">remains in place</a>.</p>
<p>After the election of the Abbott government in 2013, Operation Sovereign Borders was mounted, a key component being the Regional Deterrence Framework, at a cost of A$420 million. This is still in place.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/rT12WH4a92w?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>Part of this campaign entailed the production of a video and poster, captioned “No Way. You will not make Australia home.” This stated, </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Any vessel seeking to illegally enter Australia will be intercepted and safely removed beyond Australian waters.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>At sea</h2>
<p>In response to these official campaigns, those seeking to arouse empathy with asylum seekers and counter aspects of the Australian government’s policies have also turned to photography. </p>
<p>In 2014 Hazara refugee Barat Ali Batoor’s photo on board an asylum seeker boat between Indonesia and Australia won Photo of the Year in the Nikon-Walkley Award for Excellence in Photojournalism. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/132084/original/image-20160727-7064-jei8kw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/132084/original/image-20160727-7064-jei8kw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/132084/original/image-20160727-7064-jei8kw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/132084/original/image-20160727-7064-jei8kw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/132084/original/image-20160727-7064-jei8kw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/132084/original/image-20160727-7064-jei8kw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/132084/original/image-20160727-7064-jei8kw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/132084/original/image-20160727-7064-jei8kw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Barat Ali Batoor, The First Day at Sea.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Courtesy Barat Ai Batoor</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Batoor was lucky to survive the two-day voyage. The boat he and 92 other asylum seekers took from Indonesia ran aground on rocks before reaching Australia. His camera was ruined, but his images survived. He was officially recognised as a refugee and resettled in Australia in 2013. In response to his photo, the Walkey judges said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>For all the years of debate about asylum seekers, this is the first time we’ve seen what one of those boats look like. No-one else has been there. The processes Barat Ali Batoor went through to get on that boat, and facing the possibility it could sink – which it did – that took phenomenal courage and commitment to telling a story. Batoor broadened the debate and helped us visualise what happens before the boats arrive at Christmas Island.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Since 2014, we have seen ever-increasing tightening of control of information about detention centres. In July 2015, reporting of abuse within the Manus Island centre was made illegal, prompting a campaign of civil disobedience by staff.</p>
<p>Events such as the tragic death in February 2014 of Reza Berati, a 23-year-old Iranian national, have aroused great concern. Medical staff have repeatedly testified to the trauma for inmates of these places, especially children. The Australian government has continued to invest heavily in media programs to discourage refugees. </p>
<p>Commissioned by the Immigration Department, the telemovie <a href="http://putitouttherepictures.com/journey/">Journey</a> cost $5.6m and was filmed in three countries, screening in 2015 in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran and Iraq. It aimed to inform audiences in “source countries” about the </p>
<blockquote>
<p>futility of investing in people smugglers, the perils of the trip, and the hard line policies that await them if they do reach Australian waters.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In September 2015, however, photographs of a three-year-old Syrian boy, Aylan Kurdi, whose body had washed up on a beach in Turkey went viral on social media.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/132079/original/image-20160726-7058-1uas657.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/132079/original/image-20160726-7058-1uas657.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=466&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/132079/original/image-20160726-7058-1uas657.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=466&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/132079/original/image-20160726-7058-1uas657.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=466&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/132079/original/image-20160726-7058-1uas657.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=585&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/132079/original/image-20160726-7058-1uas657.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=585&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/132079/original/image-20160726-7058-1uas657.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=585&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Aylan Kurdi, Bodrum, September 2015.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Aylan had drowned with his brother Galip, who was five, and his mother Rehan as they tried to reach the Greek island of Kos in a small, overloaded rubber dinghy.</p>
<p>European newspapers debated whether or not to show the image, because historically, publishing images of dead children has been taboo for Western media. But the next morning most European newspapers ran the photo on the front page. British prime minister David Cameron’s initial response was to reiterate his policy that “we can’t take any more people fleeing from war”. </p>
<p>But within hours of seeing Aylan on all the front pages he admitted that he was deeply moved, and within days he announced that Britain would accept 20,000 more refugees.</p>
<p>In Australia, our papers carried the photo the following day. Initially the tragedy was represented as a European problem, with headlines such as “The images that stopped Europe”. Tony Abbott expressed sorrow but blamed the choice of refugees to flee by boat:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Well, I’d say if you want to stop the deaths, if you want to stop the drownings, you’ve got to stop the boats …</p>
</blockquote>
<p>For a week, refugees were the subject of almost every radio and TV debate. Pressure from voters and Coalition backbenchers caused the prime minister to pledge $44 million in emergency aid to refugees still detained in camps, and on September 9, Abbott announced Australia would resettle an additional 12,000 refugees from the Syria/Iraq conflict. </p>
<p>There is a clear link here between the empathy aroused by such affective images – of which Aylan’s was perhaps only the most shocking – and its concrete political consequences.</p>
<h2>Shutting our eyes</h2>
<p>The Australian government currently has obligations under various international treaties to ensure that the human rights of asylum seekers and refugees in Australian territory are respected and protected.</p>
<p>As a party to the UN Refugee Convention, Australia has agreed to ensure that asylum seekers who meet the definition of a refugee are not sent back to a country where their life or freedom would be threatened. This is known as the principle of non-refoulement. </p>
<p>Australia also has obligations not to send people to third countries where they would face a real risk of violation of their human rights under these instruments. On April 26 this year, Papua New Guinea’s supreme court ruled the detention of asylum seekers on Manus Island illegal. Offshore detention was among three areas of concern raised by the UN’s recent universal periodic review of Australia’s human rights record. Our refugee policy remains a troubling and unresolved question for the nation.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/132136/original/image-20160727-5656-1jbwrnk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/132136/original/image-20160727-5656-1jbwrnk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/132136/original/image-20160727-5656-1jbwrnk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/132136/original/image-20160727-5656-1jbwrnk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/132136/original/image-20160727-5656-1jbwrnk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/132136/original/image-20160727-5656-1jbwrnk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/132136/original/image-20160727-5656-1jbwrnk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Authorities respond to an inmates’ hunger strike at Manus Island in January 2015.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP Image/Refugee Action Collective</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This recent history reveals the intense politicisation of media representations of these events. Official responses with their focus on border protection have framed immigration and asylum seeking as a military threat, constituting asylum seekers as invaders and enemies of the state. </p>
<p>Increasingly, we have seen our government move from attempting to control images of events such as shipwreck or rescue or conditions in detention centres, <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/binaries/senate/committee/maritime_incident_ctte/report/report.pdf">to simply prohibiting them</a>. </p>
<p>The more troubling aspects of these policies – such as effects upon asylum seekers and particularly children and families under indefinite detention – remain invisible.</p>
<p>We forget that the occupants of offshore processing centres are not enemy soldiers but refugees – they are already victims of conflict in their home countries. Many of them are children, and we have specific responsibilities towards them under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.</p>
<p>The examples I have reviewed here demonstrate the Australian government’s profound fear of the power of photographs to provide a counter-narrative to its own policies, and specifically, to create empathy between Australian public audiences and asylum seekers. </p>
<p>They show that in certain contexts, displaying and circulating images, or conversely, restricting them, may have a significant impact on viewers’ attitudes and subsequently on events. </p>
<p>Harsh national border defence policies are maintained at the expense of refugee well-being. Many atrocities have been committed in the shadow of such secrecy: only this week Four Corners revealed terrible conditions prevailing within <em>onshore</em> juvenile detention centres as well, prompting immediate public outrage, and leading Human Rights Commissioner Gillian Triggs to call for a wide-ranging inquiry into Australia’s detention culture. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Lih50T0p2cI?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>I suspect that most Australians would feel just as sad, angry, or ashamed if they witnessed conditions within offshore detention centres: yet so far most Australians have not been prepared to insist on seeing into these places, nor to demand that we soften our policy of mandatory offshore detention. </p>
<p>As ethical – and privileged – Australian citizens, there is a moral imperative for us to engage with and respond to what these pictures show us.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/62705/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jane Lydon receives funding from the Australian Research Council. </span></em></p>
Images move us to act – as last week’s episode of Four Corners has shown. Our government has gone to great lengths to suppress photos that humanise asylum seekers – but when they seep out, empathy is aroused.
Jane Lydon, Professor, The University of Western Australia
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/49743
2015-12-13T19:27:58Z
2015-12-13T19:27:58Z
Gillian Triggs: How the ‘fair go’ became the last bulwark for Australia’s freedoms
<p>Australian governments have, over the last few years, passed laws that explicitly, or in their effect, breach fundamental human rights. </p>
<p>Not only have our parliaments failed to exercise their traditional restraint to protect common law freedoms and liberties, they’ve also allowed the executive government to expand its discretionary powers and, increasingly, excluded the courts and judges from exercising judicial scrutiny or control. </p>
<p>Parliaments all too often ignore the separation of powers doctrine. The government’s uncontested assessment of national interest and security often trumps the rule of domestic and international law, as well as Australia’s obligations under human rights treaties.</p>
<h2>Politics of fear</h2>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/the-border-is-everywhere-the-policy-overreach-behind-operation-fortitude-46860">Operation Fortitude</a> provides a powerful example of executive overreach in civilian affairs. The recently merged Department of Immigration and Border Protection’s Operation Fortitude was to involve a number of agencies – including Victoria Police, Yarra Trams, Metro Trains, the Sherriff’s Office, Taxis Services Commission and the Australian Border Force – <a href="http://newsroom.border.gov.au/releases/abf-joining-inter-agency-outfit-to-target-crime-in-melbourne-cbd">targeting crimes</a> ranging from “anti-social behaviour” to outstanding arrest warrants. It was cancelled after a community outcry.</p>
<p>It is but one example of the tendency to increase executive power and to criminalise behaviour that, in the past, might have attracted a civil fine. </p>
<p>Australian governments have introduced, and parliaments have passed, scores of laws that infringe common law freedoms of speech, association and movement, the right to a fair trial and the prohibition on arbitrary detention. </p>
<p>These new laws undermine a healthy, robust democracy, especially when they grant discretionary powers to executive governments in the absence of meaningful judicial scrutiny.</p>
<p>What explains Australia’s move to restrictive approaches to our fundamental freedoms and human rights over the last few years?</p>
<p>There’s a conflation in the public mind of the events of 2001 – the <a href="http://www.nma.gov.au/online_features/defining_moments/featured/tampa_affair">Tampa crisis</a>, the “<a href="http://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate/Former_Committees/scrafton/report/c02">Children Overboard</a>” claims and the September 11 terrorist attacks. </p>
<p>Since these events 14 years ago, governments and political leaders have played on community fears of terrorism and the unauthorised entry of refugees to concentrate power in the hands of the executive – to the detriment of Australian liberty.</p>
<h2>Dubious laws</h2>
<p>Particularly troubling is the phenomenon of the major political parties agreeing with each other to pass laws that threaten the fundamental rights and freedoms Australia has inherited from its common law tradition.</p>
<p>Compounding the concentration of power in the executive’s hands is the recent increasing militarisation of government and the criminalisation of behaviour that has not hitherto been the subject of criminal penalties. This includes:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>Counter-terrorism laws: <a href="https://theconversation.com/turnbull-outlines-the-plans-for-new-laws-on-metadata-retention-33629">metadata retention</a> and law enforcement agencies’ access to that data without a warrant or independent or judicial authorisation and oversight.</p></li>
<li><p>Criminalisation of Australians who enter “<a href="https://theconversation.com/parliamentary-committee-only-tinkers-with-foreign-fighters-bill-33148">declared areas</a>” in Syria and Iraq, and placing the burden of providing a legitimate reason on the accused.</p></li>
<li><p><a href="https://www.humanrights.gov.au/visa-cancellation-character-grounds">Cancellation of visas</a> and mandatory detention of those who become unlawful non-citizens by, for example, failing the new character test, which depends on the minister’s suspicion that even minor offences have occurred. All this coupled with the minister’s power to overturn Administrative Appeals Tribunal decisions.</p></li>
<li><p>Lengthy administrative detention of the mentally ill or those unfit to plead without trial.</p></li>
<li><p>Operation Sovereign Borders and <a href="https://theconversation.com/boats-secrecy-leads-to-bad-policy-without-democratic-accountability-43324">secrecy</a> of “on-water activities”.</p></li>
<li><p><a href="https://theconversation.com/border-force-act-entrenches-secrecy-around-australias-asylum-seeker-regime-44136">Secrecy laws</a> under the Australian Border Force Act that criminalise all immigration workers, consultants and service providers who disclose “protected information” – an offence that attracts a penalty of two years’ imprisonment.</p></li>
<li><p>Legislative exclusion from the Administrative Decisions (Administrative Review) Act of decisions under counter-terrorism, national security and migration laws.</p></li>
</ul>
<h2>Whither protection?</h2>
<p>It might be thought that Australians can rely on their courts to protect common law liberties. Judges have employed the principle of “legality” to adopt a restrictive interpretation of legislation to protect common law freedoms. </p>
<p>Laws passed by parliament are not to be construed as abrogating fundamental common law rights, privileges and immunities in the absence of clear words or unmistakable and unambiguous language.</p>
<p>But, as our laws are now drafted with such precision – or are so constantly amended – ambiguities are increasingly hard for the courts to find.</p>
<p>Historically, parliament has been the bulwark against sovereign or executive power. But law professor George Williams <a href="http://www.cla.asn.au/News/legal-assault-on-australian-democracy/">estimates</a> there are now more than 350 Australian laws that infringe fundamental freedoms. He suggests prioritising governmental power has become a “routine part of the legislative process”, stimulating little community or media responses.</p>
<p>And an Australian Law Reform Commission <a href="https://www.alrc.gov.au/news-media/media-release/rights-and-freedoms-commonwealth-laws-IR">interim report</a> on rights and freedoms in Commonwealth laws has confirmed this assessment.</p>
<p>One of Australia’s most effective safeguards of human rights is the cultural expectation that freedoms will be protected. Most Australians are unlikely to be able to describe the doctrine of the separation of powers. But they’re quick to assert their liberties under the rubric of a “fair go” – a phrase that’s as close to a bill of rights as Australia is likely to get. </p>
<p>This cultural expectation is what keeps our freedoms alive today – as was illustrated by the overwhelming community response to Operation Fortitude. And to preserve <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/backlash-over-george-brandis-racial-discrimination-repeal-20140325-35gih.html">Section 18C</a> of the Racial Discrimination Act when the Abbott government proposed stripping out legislative provisions protecting ethnic groups from hate speech.</p>
<p>But the scores of laws passed recently that infringe our rights have confirmed my view that Australia needs a legislated Charter of Rights. If we had such rights enshrined in the Constitution, laws that infringe them could easily be repealed or amended. </p>
<hr>
<p><em>This article is an edited extract of the Blackshield Lecture, delivered by Professor Triggs on November 5, 2015. It’s part of a series on <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/breaking-political-conventions">breaking political conventions</a>. Look out for more articles exploring various political conventions in the coming days.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/49743/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Gillian Triggs is president of the Australian Human Rights Commission.</span></em></p>
The government’s uncontested assessment of national interest and security often trumps the rule of domestic and international law, as well as Australia’s obligations under human rights treaties.
Gillian Triggs, Emeritus Professor, University of Sydney
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/48162
2015-09-28T09:30:13Z
2015-09-28T09:30:13Z
Julian Burnside: What sort of country are we?
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/96357/original/image-20150928-17736-lnbmqc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C101%2C1931%2C1225&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Julian Burnside at a hearing during the Tampa case in 2001.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP/John Hargest</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>This piece is based on the 2015 Hamer Oration, delivered by Julian Burnside on September 28, 2015.</em></p>
<p>It was with some surprise that I found myself engaged in such a hotly political issue as refugee policy. I had never been involved in politics, nor interested in it. My best explanation of how this happened lies in a story I heard a long time ago. It involves a family whose ten-year-old son had never spoken a word. The parents had passed from anxiety to despair to resignation: there was no organic reason for his silence.</p>
<p>One morning, as a novelty, the mother decided to serve porridge at breakfast. She had never served it before. </p>
<p>The ten-year-old took a spoonful of porridge, looked up sharply and said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I think porridge is revolting. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>His parents were astonished. </p>
<blockquote>
<p>It’s a miracle! You can speak! Why haven’t you spoken before this?</p>
</blockquote>
<p>He said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Everything has been satisfactory until now.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Tampa, refugees and the collapse of values</h2>
<p>The arrival of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tampa_affair">Tampa</a> in Australian waters was misrepresented to the public as a threat to our national sovereignty. The people on Tampa were rescued at the request of the Australian government. They comprised for the most part terrified Hazaras from Afghanistan, fleeing the Taliban. The Taliban’s regime was universally recognised as one of the most brutal and repressive in recent times.</p>
<p>The notion that a handful of terrified, persecuted men, women and children fleeing such a regime could constitute a threat to our national sovereignty is so bizarre that it defies discussion. </p>
<p>I was shocked to see Australia’s response to Tampa. The government denied the Tampa’s request to land is bedraggled cargo in Australia; it sent the SAS onto the ship. 438 men, women and children were held on the deck in the tropical sun, day after day. I knew nothing about our refugee policy, but I knew it was wrong to treat human beings that way.</p>
<p>By the time the case was over, I knew a lot more about refugee policy, and a lot more about the Australian character. I knew that it was not possible to stay in this country unless I tried to do something to combat these obvious injustices. It was my great “porridge moment”. On August 26, 2001, MV Tampa rescued 438 people whose boat, the Palapa, had sunk. It rescued them at Australia’s request. It acted according to the tradition of sailors the world over.</p>
<p>The people rescued by Tampa were, mostly, terrified Hazaras from Afghanistan: men, women and children. They were fleeing the Taliban. We knew all this. We also knew that the Taliban were a brutal and repressive regime. We knew that Hazaras, one of the three ethnic groups in Afghanistan, had been <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2014/dec/17/resurgent-taliban-targets-afghan-hazara-as-australia-sends-them-back">persecuted</a> for centuries, but that the persecution had become increasingly harsh under the Taliban who come from the Pashtun ethnic group.</p>
<p>The captain of Tampa asked for medical help. Many of the women and children were ill or injured. When Tampa entered Australian territorial waters off Christmas Island, Australia sent the SAS and took control of the ship at gunpoint to prevent the refugees from coming ashore. </p>
<p>The arrival of the Tampa in Australian waters was misrepresented to the public as a threat to our national sovereignty. The notion that 438 terrified, persecuted men, women and children constitute a threat to national sovereignty is so bizarre that it defies discussion. </p>
<p>The idea that Prime Minister John Howard could revive his flagging prospects for re-election by using the SAS to keep those people from safety reflected a profound malaise in the Australian character.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/cases/cth/federal_ct/2001/1329.html">judgment</a> in the Tampa case was handed down at 2.15PM Eastern Standard Time on September 11, 2001, nine hours before the terrorist attack on America. From that moment, the government ran two different ideas together: border control and security. The catch-cry “border protection” confuses national security with refugee policy. In that confusion we lost our moral bearings.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/96348/original/image-20150928-17733-1iksp9j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/96348/original/image-20150928-17733-1iksp9j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/96348/original/image-20150928-17733-1iksp9j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/96348/original/image-20150928-17733-1iksp9j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/96348/original/image-20150928-17733-1iksp9j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/96348/original/image-20150928-17733-1iksp9j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/96348/original/image-20150928-17733-1iksp9j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The government denied the Tampa’s request to land is bedraggled cargo in Australia.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP/Wallenius Wilhelmsen</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The Pacific Solution is born</h2>
<p>During the Tampa litigation, the Howard government cobbled together the Pacific Solution. It is hard to believe, but the first incarnation of the Pacific Solution, terrible though it was, was more benign than the present version. </p>
<p>But it had its victims. One of them was <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2002/sep/11/australia.immigration">Mohammad Sarwar</a>. </p>
<p>On August 26, 2002, the Afghans who had been rescued by Tampa were preparing to commemorate the 12-month anniversary of their rescue. That morning, Sarwar woke, sat up, uttered two short cries and fell back dead.</p>
<p>His friends wrote to us:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>We regret to inform you that in early morning of 26th August Mohammad Sarwar ID NO 391 an Afghan Tampa Asylum Seeker died.He was quite young and seemed to be in his mid 20s. He was a Hazara from Central Afghanistan. He was one of the 438 asylum seekers who were rescued from ocean by the Norwegian freighter MV Tampa. He spent almost one year on board the Tampa and Manoora and in detention on Nauru. He was hospitalised in Nauru for the first few weeks on Nauru.</p>
<p>He was refused refugee status by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Just a few days earlier to his death he was interviewed on his appeal to the negative decision he had received on his claim for protection. His close associates, who had seen him coming out of the interview room, had seen he was very concerned and unhappy for the ways he was asked question. In the recent weeks he was seen to be stressed, worried, depressed and almost isolated. But Mohammad Sarwar was proved to be a voiceless, quiet and would speak very little of his concerns and pains he might be suffering. Recently, he was seen sitting alone and thinking very deeply. </p>
<p>Eventually, he has sought the asylum only God can grant.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Both Australia and Nauru refused to conduct an autopsy. </p>
<p>At the time Sarwar died, the Australian government was forcing and cajoling Afghans to return to their country. Sarwar’s family asked that his corpse be returned to Kabul. Australia refused, saying it was unsafe to return a corpse to Afghanistan. </p>
<p>Sarwar was an early victim of the Pacific Solution. Another was Australia’s character.</p>
<h2>Terror</h2>
<p>In the wake of 9/11, the government sent a care package to every Australian household. It included a fridge magnet – a sure protection against terrorism – and a letter from Howard. The letter included this observation:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Dear Fellow Australian, </p>
<p>I’m writing to you because I believe you and your family should know more about some key issues affecting the security of our country and how we can all play a part in protecting our way of life.</p>
<p>As a people we have traditionally engaged the world optimistically … our open, friendly nature makes us welcome guests and warm hosts.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Don Watson wrote about this:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>This rose-coloured boasting smells of some nightmare ministry of information … the phrase as a people might not be a lie, but it smells like one. And it sits askew to the element of conservative political philosophy that opposes all attempts to categorise people by class or historic tendency, or any other conceit that will serve as an excuse for eliminating them. </p>
<p>The people of Australia is not so rank because it does not carry the suggestion that some mythic or historic force unites us in our destiny. But if we must have as a people, then traditionally has to go, and not only because optimistically is sitting on top of it. It has to go because it is so at odds with Australian history it could be reasonably called a lie. </p>
<p>Traditionally we built barriers against the world we are alleged to have engaged so optimistically; traditionally we clung to the mother country for protection against that same world; traditionally … we took less of an optimistic view of the world than an ironic, fatalistic view of the world. </p>
<p>The smugness of the sentence about our being lovely guests and warm hosts is so larded by fantasy and self-delusion, it transcends Neighbours and becomes Edna Everage. </p>
<p>It will occur to some readers, surely, that it has been our nature recently to play very cold hosts to uninvited guests, the sort of people we don’t want here, who throw their children into the sea, who are not fun-loving, welcoming, warm, sunny, etc.</p>
<p>Given (our) recent history, we might wonder if the words are as ingenuous as they sound. The thought, even the subconscious thought, might have been of a piece with Medea’s “soft talk”. Thus – as a people Australians are very nice; people who don’t agree with this proposition are not nice people; people who are not nice are not Australians in the sense of Australians as a people. People who are not prepared to be Australian as a people should shut up or piss off back where they came from.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>There is the problem: by our response to boat people since August 2001, we may have redefined our national character. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/96352/original/image-20150928-17708-1ksceas.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/96352/original/image-20150928-17708-1ksceas.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=394&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/96352/original/image-20150928-17708-1ksceas.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=394&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/96352/original/image-20150928-17708-1ksceas.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=394&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/96352/original/image-20150928-17708-1ksceas.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=495&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/96352/original/image-20150928-17708-1ksceas.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=495&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/96352/original/image-20150928-17708-1ksceas.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=495&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Howard government set up the ‘Pacific Solution’ for dealing with boat arrivals.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP/Laura Friezer</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Hamidi</h2>
<p>Mr Hamidi had fled Saddam Hussein’s regime. Within a couple of weeks of his arrival in detention in Australia, officers of the Immigration Department noted that he had suffered torture in Iraq at the notorious Abu Ghraib Prison and that the form of torture which most frightened him was being locked in a small room. In Abu Ghraib, he had regularly been held in a small cell where he was randomly electrocuted through water in the floor. </p>
<p>After about 15 or 18 months in detention, he fell into hopelessness and despair. It is typical for asylum seekers in Australia’s detention system to lose hope after about 15 or 18 months. When Mr Hamidi fell into hopelessness, he started self-harming. Whenever he could find a bit of broken glass or a bit of razor wire, he would cut himself. </p>
<p>When he cut himself, the Immigration Department did two things: they gave him Panadol (which seems to be the universal treatment in immigration detention) and they put him in solitary confinement – in a small cell. This did not help him. </p>
<p>After a couple of weeks in solitary confinement, he would come out even more desperate than when he went in. He would then harm himself again and the Department would give him Panadol and solitary confinement. This went on for five years. </p>
<p>Eventually, some lawyers in Adelaide took a case to the Federal Court of Australia seeking an order requiring that Mr Hamidi, and some others in similarly desperate circumstances, should be taken to the Glenside psychiatric hospital in Adelaide for assessment and, if necessary, for treatment. The Commonwealth resisted the application and fought the case for several weeks. Eventually, the judge determined that the detainees should be sent to Glenside for assessment and if necessary for treatment. </p>
<p>When Mr Hamidi was taken to Glenside he was assessed mentally and physically. The physical assessment showed that he had ten metres of scarring on his body from his self-harming in Immigration Detention. He subsequently got a protection visa, but his health is ruined. Saddam Hussein tried to kill him and failed. Australia tried to incapacitate him and succeeded. Chance bludgeoned him almost to death. </p>
<h2>One girl</h2>
<p>There was the case which, for me at least, forever changed my view of this lucky country. It concerned an Iranian family – mother, father and two daughters aged 11 and seven at the relevant time. They were members of a small, pre-Christian religion: a religion which, in Iran, is regarded as unclean. If ever you think chance has dealt you a bad hand, try being a member of a religion which is regarded as unclean. There are plenty of historical precedents which show what a hard time those people get. </p>
<p>This family stayed on in Iran for as long as they could bear it, because their parents and grandparents were buried there. But one day, after a shocking incident involving the 11-year-old, the family fled Iran and ended up in detention at Woomera.</p>
<p>After about 15 or 18 months, all of them were in a bad way but especially the 11-year-old. The 11-year-old girl had stopped caring for herself: she had stopped grooming herself, she had stopped brushing her hair; she was careless with her clothing; she had stopped eating. She was frightened to go to the toilet block, which was about 100 metres from their cabin, and she would wet the bed at night and wet her clothing during the day. </p>
<p>Back then, if you were held in Woomera and had serious psychiatric needs, you would get to see the visiting psychiatrist approximately once every six months. The 11 year-old-girl needed daily psychiatric help. A psychiatrist from Adelaide, who had heard about the case, went to Woomera and delivered a report to the Immigration Department saying that it was essential that the family be removed from Woomera and placed in a metropolitan detention centre so that the 11-year-old could get daily psychiatric help. The report emphasised that the child was at extreme risk.</p>
<p>Eventually, the Department agreed to move the family from Woomera in the South Australian desert to Maribyrnong in the western suburbs of Melbourne. There, although the purpose for moving them was that the 11-year-old should get daily psychiatric help, for the first two and a half weeks of their stay nobody came to see her: not a psychiatrist, not a psychologist, not a doctor, not a nurse, not a social worker – nobody at all. It was as if they hadn’t even arrived.</p>
<p>On a Sunday night in May 2002, while her mother and father and young sister were up in the mess hall having their evening meal, this little girl alone in their cell in Maribyrnong Detention Centre took a bedsheet and hanged herself. But she was only little and didn’t know how to tie the knot properly, so she was still strangling when the family came back from dinner. They took her down and she and her mother were taken straight away to the general hospital nearby. They were accompanied by two ACM guards so that, as a matter of legal analysis, they were still in Immigration Detention. </p>
<p>Kon from the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre, who had been looking after the family’s visa application, heard about the incident and went to the hospital at about 9.30 that night. He said hello to the guards, who know him well because he is a regular visitor of Maribyrnong. He said he just wanted to speak to the mother to see if there was anything he could do to help. They said: “No you’re not allowed to see them, because lawyers’ visiting hours in Immigration Detention are nine to five” and they sent him away. Kon then rang me at home and told me what had happened. </p>
<p>Are we a country which treats children that way? Apparently we are. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/96353/original/image-20150928-17733-10n6cau.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/96353/original/image-20150928-17733-10n6cau.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=308&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/96353/original/image-20150928-17733-10n6cau.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=308&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/96353/original/image-20150928-17733-10n6cau.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=308&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/96353/original/image-20150928-17733-10n6cau.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=387&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/96353/original/image-20150928-17733-10n6cau.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=387&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/96353/original/image-20150928-17733-10n6cau.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=387&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Woomera detention centre in South Australia hosted hundreds of detainees.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The 2013 election</h2>
<p>By 2008 the boats had virtually stopped arriving. In July 2008, the first Rudd government introduced a number of <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/national/rudd-govt-softens-asylum-seeker-laws-20080728-3mgo.html">reforms</a> to the Migration Act which satisfied about 90% of the concerns of refugee advocates. A while later, however, chance played another wild card: Tony Abbott became opposition leader by one vote. </p>
<p>As soon as he became opposition leader, Abbott began complaining publicly and loudly about boat people. Kevin Rudd responded by mounting a ferocious attack on people smugglers. It seems that in the heat of the moment he had forgotten that his <a href="https://www.themonthly.com.au/monthly-essays-kevin-rudd-faith-politics--300">moral hero</a> – Dietrich Bonhoeffer – had been a people smuggler, albeit a benevolent one. He had forgotten, it seems, that Oskar Schindler and Gustav Schroeder, the Captain of the St Louis, were both people smugglers. </p>
<p>When Julia Gillard became Australia’s first female prime minister, she ran a very ambivalent line about boat people. While expressing some concern for the circumstances which led them to flee, she said that she understood why Australians were concerned about boat people arriving in Australia. The asylum seeker debate went off on a new tack at about that time. </p>
<p>The lowpoint of the debate was seen in the campaign that preceded the federal election of September 2013. That election campaign, for the first time in Australia’s political history, saw both major parties try to outbid each other in their promises of cruelty to boat people. </p>
<p>Abbott won the election and made good of his promise to mistreat boat people. We now have the harshest imaginable policies in relation to boat people and arguably the harshest treatment of boat people of any country that has signed the Refugees’ Convention. </p>
<p>In broad outline it goes like this. </p>
<h2>When boat people arrive</h2>
<p>When boat people arrive at Christmas Island, they have typically spent eight or ten days on a rickety boat. They have typically come from landlocked countries and have typically never spent time on the ocean. </p>
<p>Typically, they have had not enough to eat and not enough to drink. Typically, they have had no opportunity to wash or to change their clothes. Typically, they arrive distressed, frightened and wearing clothes caked in their own excrement. </p>
<p>They are not allowed to shower or to change their clothes before they are interviewed by a member of the Immigration Department. It is difficult to think of any decent justification for subjecting them to that humiliation. </p>
<p>When they arrive, any medical appliances they have will be confiscated and not returned: spectacles, hearing aids, false teeth, prosthetic limbs, are all confiscated. If they have any medications with them, those medications are confiscated and not returned. </p>
<p>According to doctors on Christmas Island, one person has a full-time job of sitting in front of a bin popping pills out of blister packs for later destruction. </p>
<p>If they have any medical documentation with them, it is confiscated and not returned. The result of all of this is that people with chronic health problems find themselves denied any effective treatment. </p>
<p>The results can be very distressing. For example, a doctor who worked on Christmas Island told me of a woman who had been detained there for some weeks and who was generally regarded as psychotic. Her behaviour was highly erratic for reasons that no-one understood. The consultation with this woman was very difficult because, although the doctor and the patient were sitting across a table from each other, the interpreter joined them by telephone from Sydney. </p>
<p>Eventually, the doctor worked out that the problem was that the woman was incontinent of urine. She could not leave her cabin without urine running down her leg. It was driving her mad. When the doctor worked out that this was the cause of the problem, she asked the Department to provide incontinence pads. The Department’s initial response was “we don’t do those”. The doctor insisted. </p>
<p>The Department relented and provided four incontinence pads per day: not enough, so that the woman needs to queue for more but the incontinence pads made a profound difference to her mood and behaviour. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/96356/original/image-20150928-17699-x3j6nj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/96356/original/image-20150928-17699-x3j6nj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/96356/original/image-20150928-17699-x3j6nj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/96356/original/image-20150928-17699-x3j6nj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/96356/original/image-20150928-17699-x3j6nj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/96356/original/image-20150928-17699-x3j6nj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/96356/original/image-20150928-17699-x3j6nj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">When boat people arrive at Christmas Island, they have typically spent eight or ten days at sea.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>‘Pacific Solution’ mark two</h2>
<p>Asylum seekers who arrive at Christmas Island are assessed to see if there is any medical reason why they cannot be sent offshore, to Nauru or Manus Island. </p>
<p>In either place, they are held in detention centres run by Transfield Services (an Australian company). Guards are provided by Wilson Security (another Australian company). Medical Services are provided by IHMS: International Medical and Health Services (an Australian subsidiary of a French company). </p>
<p>Nevertheless, Australia insists that what happens in offshore detention is nothing to do with Australia. That is not only absurdly false, it overlooks the small detail that we spend about A$5 billion a year on the detention system. If that number is unimaginably big, it is the equivalent of one million Geelong chopper rides a year. </p>
<h2>Manus</h2>
<p>A few days ago I got an email from a health worker on Manus:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>… The situation as you can imagine is very grim. Around 80% of transferees suffering serious mental health issues. PNG staff are slowly being “trained” to take over various roles with mostly undesirable results. East Lorengau is not working. One refugee is lingering in hospital for over two weeks with undiagnosed stomach problems. One refugee doctor is suffering severe mental health issues…</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Here is an extract from a statement by a doctor who worked on Manus whose professional experience includes the provision of healthcare services in maximum-security prisons in Australia:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>… On the whole, the conditions of detention at the Manus Island OPC are extremely poor. When I first arrived at the Manus Island OPC I was considerably distressed at what I saw, and I recall thinking that this must be similar to a concentration camp. </p>
<p>The detainees at the Manus Island OPC are detained behind razor wire fences, in conditions below the standard of Australian maximum-security prison. </p>
<p>My professional opinion is that the minimum medical requirements of the detained population were not being met. I have no reason to believe that the conditions of detention have improved since I ceased employment at the Manus Island OPC. </p>
<p>The conditions of detention at the Manus Island OPC appeared to be calculated to break the spirit of those detained in the Manus Island OPC. On a number of occasions the extreme conditions of detention resulted in detainees abandoning their claims for asylum and returning to their country of origin. </p>
<p>At the Manus Island OPC, bathroom facilities are rarely cleaned. There was a lot of mould, poor ventilation, and the structural integrity of the facilities is concerning. </p>
<p>No soap is provided to detainees for personal hygiene. </p>
<p>When detainees need to use the bathroom, it is standard procedure that they first attend at the guards’ station to request toilet paper. Detainees would be required to give an indication of how many ‘squares’ they will need. The maximum allowed is six squares of toilet paper, which I considered demeaning. </p>
<p>A large number of detainees continue to be in need of urgent medical attention. </p>
<p>Formal requests for medical attention are available to the detainees. The forms are only available in English. Many of the detainees do not have a workable understanding of English and the guards will not provide assistance. </p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Reza Barati</h2>
<p>In February 2014 Reza Barati was <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/feb/21/manus-dead-asylum-seeker-iranian-reza-berati">killed</a> on Manus Island. Initially, Australia said that he had escaped from the detention centre and was killed outside the detention centre. Soon it <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/feb/23/scott-morrison-denies-communication-breakdown-g4s-manus">became clear</a> that he was killed inside the detention centre. It took months before anyone was <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/reza-barati-two-men-arrested-over-death-of-asylum-seeker-at-png-detention-centre-20140819-3dyf3.html">charged</a> with his murder.</p>
<p>Just a couple of weeks after Barati was killed, I received a sworn statement from an eyewitness. The statement included the following:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>J … is a local who worked for the Salvation Army. … He was holding a large wooden stick. It was about a metre and a half long … it had two nails in the wood. The nails were sticking out … </p>
<p>When Reza came up the stairs, J … was at the top of the stairs waiting for him. J … said ‘fuck you motherfucker’ J … then swung back behind his shoulder with the stick and took a big swing at Reza, hitting him on top of the head. </p>
<p>J … screamed again at Reza and hit him again on the head. Reza then fell on the floor … </p>
<p>I could see a lot of blood coming out of his head, on his forehead, running down his face. His blood is still there on the ground. He was still alive at this stage. </p>
<p>About 10 or 15 guards from G4S came up the stairs. Two of them were Australians. The rest were PNG locals. I know who they are. I can identify them by their face. They started kicking Reza in his head and stomach with their boots. </p>
<p>Reza was on the ground trying to defend himself. He put his arms up to cover his head but they were still kicking. </p>
<p>There was one local … I recognised him … he picked up a big rock … he lifted the rock above his head and threw it down hard on top of Reza’s head. At this time, Reza passed away. </p>
<p>One of the locals came and hit him in his leg very hard … but Reza did not feel it. This is how I know he was dead. </p>
<p>After that, as the guards came past him, they kicked his dead body on the ground … </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Australia regards itself as having no responsibility for Barati or anyone else held on Manus Island or Nauru. But we pay Transfield Services to run the detention centres there. We pay Wilson Security, the Australian company which employs the guards. When the government disclaims responsibility for what happens in offshore detention centres, it is deliberately misleading you. </p>
<p>Some will be aware that I have been running a campaign to encourage Australians to write letters to people held on Nauru and Manus. Just before Christmas last year, 2000 letters I had sent to Nauru were returned to me, unopened and marked “Return to Sender”.</p>
<p>So far, the Department of Immigration has not responded to the four emails I have sent them asking for an explanation why those letters had not been delivered to the people to whom they were addressed. They have told members of the press that the named recipients of the letters did not wish to receive letters. </p>
<p>Apart from being implausible, it stands awkwardly with the fact that, during the second half of last year, the Department assured me that the letters were being received and distributed. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/96364/original/image-20150928-17699-1avo485.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/96364/original/image-20150928-17699-1avo485.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/96364/original/image-20150928-17699-1avo485.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/96364/original/image-20150928-17699-1avo485.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/96364/original/image-20150928-17699-1avo485.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/96364/original/image-20150928-17699-1avo485.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/96364/original/image-20150928-17699-1avo485.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Iranian asylum seeker Reza Barati was killed on Manus Island.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP/Dan Peled</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>International criticism</h2>
<p>Australia’s system of mandatory detention has been trenchantly criticized by Amnesty International and UNHCR. In late 2013, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) delivered a <a href="http://unhcr.org.au/unhcr/images/2013-11-26%20Report%20of%20UNHCR%20Visit%20to%20Manus%20Island%20PNG%2023-25%20October%202013.pdf">report</a> on conditions in the Regional Processing Centre (RPC) on Manus Island, saying:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>UNHCR was deeply troubled to observe that the current policies, operational approaches and harsh physical conditions at the RPC do not comply with international standards.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>It also <a href="http://unhcr.org.au/unhcr/images/Amended%20footnote%202012-12-14%20nauru%20monitoring%20report%20final_2.pdf">reported</a> on conditions in Nauru and said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Assessed as a whole, UNHCR is of the view that the transfer of asylum-seekers to what are currently harsh and unsatisfactory temporary facilities, within a closed detention setting, and in the absence of a fully functional legal framework and adequately capacitated system to assess refugee claims, do not currently meet the required protection standards.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Just as a person’s character is judged by their conduct, so a country’s character is judged by its conduct. Australia is now judged overseas by its behaviour as cruel and selfish. We treat frightened, innocent people as criminals. It is a profound injustice. </p>
<p>It is a hard thing to be forced by circumstances to leave the country of your birth in search for a place that is safe. The play of chance is worse again for those who must seek protection in a country whose language and culture is radically different from your own. </p>
<p>How much worse must it be to find that your bid for freedom ends up with punishment as harsh as anything you might have experienced at home. I have received messages from many refugees from many countries over the course of many years which say, in substance: “In my home country they kill you quickly; in Australia they kill you slowly”. </p>
<h2>Our politicians lie to us</h2>
<p>One of the most distressing things about the present situation is that it is based on a series of lies. When politicians called boat people “illegals” and “queue jumpers” they are not telling the truth. When politicians say that they are concerned about people drowning in their attempt to reach safety, they are not telling the truth. </p>
<p>The Abbott government reintroduced <a href="https://theconversation.com/back-to-the-future-on-temporary-protection-visas-17316">temporary protection visas</a> (TPVs). Temporary protection visas offer only three years’ protection, and they include a condition which denies they prospect of family reunion. </p>
<p>That has one obvious practical consequence: families who wish to rejoin the husband or father who is living in Australia on a TPV are not allowed to come to Australia by any orthodox means, so the only way in which the family can be reunited is by the women and children using the services of a people smuggler. TPVs are a positive incentive for people to use people smugglers.</p>
<p>Quite apart from that, there is something indecent about the idea that in order to prevent people from drowning in their attempt to reach safety you punish the ones who don’t drown. That is precisely what this country is doing right now.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/96365/original/image-20150928-17725-6pahi8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/96365/original/image-20150928-17725-6pahi8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=449&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/96365/original/image-20150928-17725-6pahi8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=449&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/96365/original/image-20150928-17725-6pahi8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=449&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/96365/original/image-20150928-17725-6pahi8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=564&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/96365/original/image-20150928-17725-6pahi8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=564&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/96365/original/image-20150928-17725-6pahi8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=564&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The former Abbott government made an election pledge to ‘stop the boats’.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP/Ava Benny-Morrison</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Conclusion</h2>
<p>Like most of you, I am aware that Donald Horne was speaking ironically when he wrote of Australia as “the lucky country”. But in most important ways, compared with the boat people who try to reach safety in Australia, we are indeed lucky. </p>
<p>Over the past 15 years, 94% of boat people have been assessed, by us, as refugees genuinely fleeing the fear of persecution. In Australia, most members of the community never have to fear persecution; never have to fear for the late night knock on the door; never have to fear for their human rights. </p>
<p>But it is all because of the play of chance. Imagine for a moment that you are a Hazara from Afghanistan. You have fled your country and you have come down the northwest corridor through Malaysia and Indonesia. You can travel through both of those countries because they give you a one-month visa on arrival. </p>
<p>While you are in Indonesia you can go to the UNHCR office in Jakarta and apply for refugee status. If you are a Hazara from Afghanistan, you will almost certainly be assessed as a refugee. But when your one-month visa expires, you have to hide because if you are found by the police, they will jail you. </p>
<p>You cannot work because if you work you will be found and then you will be jailed. You cannot send your children to school because if you do you will be found and then you will be jailed. If the UNHCR has assessed you as a refugee, you can wait patiently in the shadows until some country offers to resettle you. That may take 20 or 30 years. </p>
<p>Now, for just one minute, imagine that chance has put you in that position: you are that person. Will you wait in the shadows for 20 or 30 years or will you take your courage in both hands and get on a boat? I have never met an Australian who would not get on the boat. It’s a very strange thing that we criticise, revile and punish those who do precisely what we would do if by chance we had not the luck to belong to this country. </p>
<p>Whether this thinking will bear fruit may soon be tested. In the last weeks of its existence, the Abbott government shifted its position quickly in response to public opinion. It had initially resisted the idea of receiving Syrian refugees. </p>
<p>Public opinion could see however that bombing Syrians and turning our backs on them was not a good look. Germany conspicuously agreed to take 800,000 Syrian refugees, with very few questions asked. That made our claim to be “the most generous country in the world” look a bit hollow. Given that Germany’s population is about four times ours, we would have had to receive 200,000 refugees rather than the present quota of 13,750. </p>
<p>Abbott volunteered that we would take 12,000 Syrians. Whether the Turnbull government engages in cherry-picking remains to be seen. There is a real risk that the Howard government sentiment will survive: “If they come in the front door, they are (more or less) welcome; if they come in the back door, we will jail them”. </p>
<p>It’s too early to tell whether community attitudes have actually changed. If they have, government attitudes are likely to change. </p>
<p>The second matter was equally surprising and even more encouraging. Melbourne responded swiftly and decisively against the idea of Border Force officers cruising the streets and “speaking to anyone who crosses our path”. The original idea, apparently, was to have squads of public transport officers, police, and Border Force officers who would intercept people at places like Flinders Street Station and check their Myki card, their identity and their visa status.</p>
<p>Melbourne heard of the proposal on the morning of Friday, August 28. Melbournians turned out in force to protest. By mid-afternoon, the exercise had been cancelled, in a flurry of buck-passing. </p>
<p>In my view, Melbourne’s reaction – so swift and decisive – showed that we know when and where to draw the line. Perhaps I am an optimist, but I think it showed what sort of country we are. I think that, at heart, we are still the country that David Hamer and Dick Hamer served with such distinction. Perhaps someone should tell our politicians.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/48162/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Julian Burnside is a patron of the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre. He does not accept any fees when acting for asylum seekers, and any offers of payment for other services in this area are politely declined.</span></em></p>
By our response to boat people since August 2001, we may have redefined our national character.
Julian Burnside, Adjunct Professor, Australian Catholic University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/3058
2011-08-25T20:50:35Z
2011-08-25T20:50:35Z
Australia’s human rights record has not improved since the Tampa
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/3157/original/tampa_refugees.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Australia dispersed refugees who were rescued by the Tampa, and its policies haven't improved.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP/Wallenius Wilhelmsen</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The dramatic rescue of more than 400 asylum seekers by the Norwegian vessel, the Tampa, ten years ago set in train a series of events that has since caused immense suffering to so many. It is surely now time to reverse these policies.</p>
<p>The main casualties of this policy trajectory have been asylum seekers in pursuit of safe haven on our shores. </p>
<p>The introduction of excision legislation and the establishment of detention on Nauru and Manus Island caused considerable damage. </p>
<p>People languished in these centres for years or returned home to danger as they lost hope, while the Tampa people welcomed by New Zealand thrived. </p>
<p>Some of those who returned to danger have now made it back to our shores, having had to again make the dangerous and difficult journey. And, once again, they are waiting indefinitely in our detention centres for a chance to live a life free from persecution. </p>
<h2>Detaining asylum seekers</h2>
<p>In 2008, we saw a momentary lull in malevolent policies. The new Rudd Labor Government spoke of its <a href="http://www.immi.gov.au/managing-australias-borders/detention/about/key-values.htm">Key Detention Values</a> that would elevate the needs of asylum seekers rather than seek to punish them. </p>
<p>But this was soon followed by another over-reaction to a spike in the arrival of leaky boats. Lengthening times in detention, the proliferation of detention centres and inconsistent refugee claims processing have all contributed to widespread loss of hope and alarming increases in mental illness among asylum seekers.</p>
<p>This burgeoning despair has understandably led to an upsurge of asylum seekers <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-07-20/christmas-island-asylum-seeker-protest/2802058">engaging in protest. </a></p>
<h2>Deterrence not safety</h2>
<p>But rather than responding to the causes of the despair, the Labor Government has introduced new legislative measures that increase the prospect of criminalisation and the likely diminishment of a pathway to a visa and a home. </p>
<p>Once again the focus of policy has turned towards the unachievable goal of deterring asylum seekers, which effectively punishes one group of people for a broader policy purpose. </p>
<p>But the impact of policies has extended beyond those seeking asylum, including to the community of Christmas Island, the site where the standoff over the Tampa was most visible.</p>
<p>With the Labor Government initially abolishing offshore detention but still remaining committed to mandatory detention and excision, once the boats continued to arrive it was only a matter of time until detention would expand.</p>
<h2>The business of detention</h2>
<p>Soon after the Island gaol <a href="http://www.immi.gov.au/managing-australias-borders/detention/facilities/locations/christmas-island/">opened in 2008</a> the growth of the detention industry spiralled out of control, despite protests from locals.</p>
<p>Recent fires and protests have incurred the wrath of the Islanders, while paradoxically some were finally reaping some business and employment benefits from detention.</p>
<p>But any such benefits were ripped from people within moments, and without consultation, as Christmas Island detention began to wind down. Anecdotally, there have been similar negative impacts in other remote communities where detention centres emerge.</p>
<h2>The cost to the taxpayer</h2>
<p>Another casualty is the Australian taxpayer. $800 million over the past year has been spent on maintaining an unnecessary and cruel detention regime despite the fact that most of those detained are later granted refugee status. </p>
<p>And this week we hear that the federal government is spending <a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/immigration/charter-airbus-cost-12m-but-not-used/story-fn9hm1gu-1226120766998">a further $12 million</a> over the following months to charter 800 asylum seekers back to Malaysia. </p>
<h2>A better way to spend money</h2>
<p>As we watch the <a href="http://theconversation.com/from-fear-to-famine-the-politics-of-hunger-in-the-horn-of-africa-2662">unfolding humanitarian disaster in Somalia</a>, would not the ethical position be to divert these wasted funds towards saving the lives of starving children, women and men? </p>
<p>It seems politicians are continuing to compete for the worst policy position in order to gain power. </p>
<p>Even the head of the Immigration Department, Andrew Metcalfe, has <a href="http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-national/mandatory-detention-essential-bowen-20110817-1iwxk.html">asked the government to reconsider its policies</a>. When the person tasked with implementing the policy of mandatory detention makes this call, it is surely time for the Federal government and the Opposition to cease acting as purveyors of fear about the need for tough policies. </p>
<h2>Tell the truth about asylum</h2>
<p>We need to stop duping an ill-informed public that our borders and our values are at risk from asylum seeker “invaders”. </p>
<p>With a <a href="http://www.aph.gov.au/Senate/committee/immigration_detention_ctte/immigration_detention/info.htm">parliamentary detention inquiry</a> in full swing there is hope that changes will ensue. It’s hard to be optimistic though when we remember the already amassed reports on detention that continue to gather dust. </p>
<p>But as small as it seems, it could be that the tide is slowly turning in community attitudes and, if this hunch is correct, it would be foolhardy for either major political party to perpetuate their politics of fear. </p>
<p>The <a href="http://news.theage.com.au/breaking-news-national/boat-death-toll-higher-as-lost-remembered-20101220-1923g.html">Christmas Island boat tragedy</a> last December, the immorality of the Malaysian Solution people trading proposal and the ongoing detention of children seems to have shaken up some who have previously given little consideration to the suffering. </p>
<p>And at last a Labor backbencher has shown the courage to stand up to the government. Let’s hope that others follow <a href="http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/more-news/labor-mp-anna-burke-fears-for-malaysia-swap-refugees/story-fn7x8me2-1226115502542">Anna Burke’s path</a> and say “enough is enough”.</p>
<p>We can end the harm. By placing human security ahead of border security we can exercise our legal and ethical obligations. </p>
<p>Australia’s standing on human rights has been considerably blemished through our treatment of asylum seekers in the decade since Tampa.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/3058/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Linda Briskman receives funding from the ARC. She is affiliated with Curtin University.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Caroline Fleay does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
The dramatic rescue of more than 400 asylum seekers by the Norwegian vessel, the Tampa, ten years ago set in train a series of events that has since caused immense suffering to so many. It is surely now…
Linda Briskman, Professor of Human Rights, Swinburne University of Technology
Caroline Fleay, Lecturer in Human Rights, Curtin University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.