Welcome to Eureka Street

back to site

Keywords: Detained National

  • RELIGION

    Principles for a coherent refugee policy

    • Frank Brennan
    • 04 November 2011
    13 Comments

    It is only because we are an island nation continent that we can entertain the absurd notion of sealing our borders from refugee flows. We must remain committed to resettling bona fide refugees who reach our shores regardless of any regional solutions we put in place to deter them. 

    READ MORE
  • AUSTRALIA

    Lucking out in Libya

    • Binoy Kampmark
    • 26 August 2011
    2 Comments

    Obama and NATO have been lucky that this campaign has worked thus far. To participate in a brutal civil war is always a dangerous game of chance. So far, the rebels have limited their bouts of revenge to arson and looting. A blood bath has not ensued, at least not yet.

    READ MORE
  • RELIGION

    Churches and the Malaysian Solution

    • Frank Brennan
    • 19 July 2011
    12 Comments

    This is not a regional solution to a regional problem, but a bilateral attempt at solving an Australian problem. To stop the boats, one needs to engage in measures contrary to the Refugee Convention. Church groups can not endorse something they know to be either unworkable or immoral.

    READ MORE
  • RELIGION

    Human rights and Christian lawyers

    • Frank Brennan
    • 18 July 2011
    5 Comments

    When I appeared on Q&A with Christopher Hitchens, a young man asked whether we can 'ever hope to live in a truly secular society' while the religious continue to 'affect political discourse and decision making' on euthanasia, same-sex unions and abortion. Hitchens was simpaticao. I was dumbstruck.

    READ MORE
  • INTERNATIONAL

    Asylum seeker decision tests Government sportsmanship

    • Kerry Murphy
    • 12 November 2010
    6 Comments

    A litmus test for the health of a democracy is what a Government does when it loses cases in the highest court in the land. The first consequence of yesterday's High Court decision regarding the cases of two Tamil asylum seekers is that many cases will need to be reconsidered.

    READ MORE
  • INTERNATIONAL

    Time for detention reform

    • Kerry Murphy
    • 24 September 2010
    9 Comments

    The recent tragic death of a man in Villawood Detention Centre has again raised questions about the need for Australia's harmful detention policy. Strong leadership is required to reform the process and abandon the 'race to the bottom' we saw during the election. 

    READ MORE
  • AUSTRALIA

    No equal voting opportunity

    • Moira Byrne Garton
    • 02 September 2010
    9 Comments

    Many of us value our participation in the election and have been excited by the resulting hung parliament. But some adult  citizens cannot be placed on the roll at all, with a significant number of Australians with intellectual disabilities or mental illness disenfranchised.

    READ MORE
  • RELIGION

    The 747 or the leaky boat

    • Frank Brennan
    • 21 June 2010
    14 Comments

    As the election lather on the asylum seeker issue continues, let's ask, 'Why is it right to treat the honest, unvisaed boat person more harshly than the visaed airplane passenger who fails to declare their intention to apply for asylum?'

    READ MORE
  • RELIGION

    Fear and fiction in Australia’s asylum seekers responses

    • Frank Brennan
    • 18 June 2010
    1 Comment

    READ MORE
  • AUSTRALIA

    Best of 2009: The homeless poet

    • John Falzon
    • 15 January 2010
    3 Comments

    A Japanese homeless man was sending the most exquisite poems to a popular newspaper. There is nothing extraordinary about a person experiencing homelessness producing great poetry. Yet the scenario was regarded with astonishment. October 2009

    READ MORE
  • AUSTRALIA

    Protecting children from bullies and bureaucrats

    • Michael Mullins
    • 23 November 2009
    5 Comments

    A Wesley Mission survey of 1200 adults found that being bullied as children caused 70 per cent of them to suffer from low self-esteem and a lack of assertiveness later in life. Federal Labor must explain what has become of its promise to appoint a children's commissioner.

    READ MORE
  • AUSTRALIA

    The homeless poet

    • John Falzon
    • 12 October 2009
    5 Comments

    A Japanese homeless man was sending the most exquisite poems to a popular newspaper. There is nothing extraordinary about a person experiencing homelessness producing great poetry. Yet the scenario was regarded with astonishment.

    READ MORE