Welcome to the asylum

Not so long ago, young people used to have a rite of passage known as their 21st where

parents held a big party and at some time during the evening, before the keg had been drunk

dry and the flower beds decorated in carrots, the centre of attention was given the key of the

door.

As people gazed at some large boofy bloke and grainy old pictures of a naked toddler

crawling into the surf or suchlike, the proud parents spoke of the responsibility that came

with having your own front door key. Part of that responsibility was that you had to act like

an adult in all things. Quaint, eh?

As L.P. Hartley wrote, “The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there.”

It's a bit like becoming the government of a country. The old days of wild-eyed idealism

in opposition are over. The hard grind of office brings with it perks, but it also brings an

obligation to act responsibly.

The refugee debate has become a race to the bottom of a cesspit that has no bottom. The

rednecks of talkback radio and their call-in gibberers will not be satisfied until they see

people being shot in the water. They are beyond any normal decency and should be treated

as such. Instead, we are seeing them shaping the debate and all semblance of responsible

government thrown under the bus.

What seems to be forgotten here is that we are bludgers. We are sponging off the rest of

the world. Offshore processing means we are willing to abrogate our responsibilities under

refugee conventions and throw our problems into someone else’s backyard like bags of

smelly garbage.

Let us remind ourselves of the millions of refugees moving around the world, desperate

for sanctuary as war, famine and terror breathe down their necks.
In 35 years, 500 boats

bringing a total of 27,000 people have arrived in this country. Let us remind ourselves of

the 40,000 asylum seekers Greece is processing at the moment.

Let us remind ourselves of the asylum seekers from Africa flowing into Italy, Spain and Portugal on a daily basis. Of

course there are problems but they are dealing with it. It is what grown-ups do.

How would we feel if Italy announced it had struck a deal, whereby it would send asylum

seekers to Australia to let us handle the issue? I think they would be told to get on their

bikes; Australia should be told to do the same thing. Grow up and do your processing

onshore. You are a rich first-world nation. Deal with it yourself.

But there are even more concerning things happening in Canberra at the moment.

At the height of the Tampa crisis, John Howard tried to get Kim Beazley to sign on to a

clause that allowed the navy to open fire on asylum seekers. Thankfully Labor stood on its

dig and that, and more egregious clauses, were washed out before Labor signed up to the

laws which the High Court recently said were unlawful.

The day that judgement came, Gillard and her government stood at the crossroads. Here

was a chance to reset the policy, to look at some form of onshore processing, without the

iniquitous mandatory detention for boat arrivals (but not those arriving by plane), fast

processing, a return for unsuccessful asylum seekers and asylum for the genuine. It was time

to come clean and say publicly what everyone in government and opposition knows − that

you will not stop boats coming. Not without using deadly force.

So you have to say some boats will come but we are doing all we can to step up activities

in the region to stop people making that dangerous voyage. Other countries in our region

probably would be more helpful. At the moment, they have the poos with us because of our

fortress mentality and our refusal to behave like a civilised country. It's our international

NIMBYism that offends them most

That was one road. The other was the dark narrow alleyway leading off into further

darkness. And Gillard and her cohorts, without even pausing for breath, took it. So we have

the situation where Tony Abbott, a man who in the last election ran with a policy of telling

the navy to push back boats, pretending he is compassionate. He showed not one jot of

sympathy for refugees and indeed fed raw meat to the redneck hordes rejoicing in the fact

that he was a man of no compassion when it came to this issue. Now he is trying to present

another face. Is anyone buying it? I hope not.

Abbott wants to win a political battle to force Gillard to send asylum seekers to Nauru,

because that is his plan. If he had thought of the Malaysian solution first, that would be

his plan. He and Gillard are playing dice with the lives of others for base political reasons.

Refugees, international treaty obligations, common laws of natural justice and common

decency are just collateral damage. I curse both of them and their parties.

But in a perverse way I want him to block these laws and for once I will not agree with T.S.

Elliott:

“The last temptation is the greatest treason:

To do the right deed for the wrong reason.”

This is an emergency. The Labor Party's soul has been on life support for the past few years.

Now it is desperately trying to reach over and turn off the machines so it will slide off to an

unmourned death. If it gets it way, it should be left on a field to be torn apart by dogs and its

bones dispersed to the four corners of the world.

The laws Gillard has released are a despot’s charter. They specifically tell the Immigration

Minister that the rules of natural justice do not apply and they absolve him of his

responsibility under the Immigration Act to be the guardian of unaccompanied minors. So,

no matter what rights people have under our international treaty obligations, he can send

them wherever he likes. The children? Who gives a shit? Just ship ’em off.

The laws of natural justice are the underpinnings of our most basic freedoms and have been

used by people over the years to fight against the heavy hand of the state. They require that

people are treated with due process. In shorthand, the law embodies the golden rule: “Do

unto others…” They are the principles that make us different from tin-pot dictatorships.

They are principles that the court upholds on a regular basis. They allow the little person to

have a say in how they are treated.

They are principles Gillard and Immigration Minister Bowen are happy to piss up against

a wall. Abbott too; he has no problems with the laws, except as they apply to Malaysia.

International treaties? So what? Sooner or later people are going to look at this country

and think the same thing. Except places like China, where they delight in this form of

pragmatism. Soon we will be welcome down in the hole they live in.

Gillard is proposing to chuck out a cornerstone of our democracy to save her political arse.

Abbott is opposing it not for good reasons but because he thinks he can get a vote out of it.

Can it get any baser?

No minister should have this sort of power. The reason we have tiers of government, courts

and parliaments is so that excess can be checked and wrongs undone. With the stroke of a

legislative pen, Gillard proposes to sweep them away

We should resist this, regardless of how we feel about the asylum seeker question. We

should be calling on politicians in all parties to stand up and say, “Enough is enough.”