Immigration has featured as an issue in every Australian election since 2001. But the numbers often tell a different story from the political posturing.
Parkland, Florida, where 17 people died in a school shooting on Valentine’s Day 2018, was already a place of highly secure, gated communities, so the survivors instead united against guns and hate.
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.
Originally designed to display service times or bible quotations, church signs are becoming a site of political commentary, tackling everything from pill testing to refugee rights.
The result will be a major fillip to government MPs, who are hoping the revival of the boats issue will swing public opinion in the Coalition’s direct.
If the government really intends to “reopen” Christmas Island in any major way, it could find itself spending a lot of money there on few if any people.
A refugee law expert on a week of ‘reckless’ rhetoric and a new way to process asylum seeker claims
The Conversation44 MB(download)
Today on Trust Me, I'm An Expert, a refugee legal expert busts myths about how proposed medical transfer rules would work, and described some of this week's border security rhetoric as 'reckless'.
A bill to allow for asylum seeker on Nauru and Manus Island to be transferred to Australia for medical and psychiatric treatment has passed both Houses. How will it change things for those detained?
Morrison told a news conference cabinet’s national security committee had met early Tuesday to discuss the contingency planning already in train in anticipation of the bill’s passage.
The government will turn up the dial by announcing “contingency plans” against fresh arrivals. Morrison is already moving on to the claim that Shorten couldn’t be trusted to be strong on turnbacks.
The government has suffered a historic defeat in the House of Representatives, with Labor and crossbenchers passing the legislation facilitating medical transfers from Manus and Nauru by 75-74.