Keywords: Malaysia Solution
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RELIGION
- Frank Brennan
- 01 September 2011
39 Comments
From now on, the High Court will apply a very fine tooth comb to any legislation allowing ministers to ship asylum seekers offshore. Unless there were to be a bipartisan agreement in the Parliament or a government deal with the Greens, asylum seekers arriving by boat now need to be processed fairly, promptly, on our terms and on our turf.
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AUSTRALIA
- Justin Glyn
- 30 August 2011
9 Comments
By pursuing the refugee swap deal with Malaysia, Australia may be in breach of one of the most serious prohibitions in international law. This raises the question of what Australia's attitude is to other fundamenal norms of international law. This question goes well beyond issues of refugee protection.
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EUREKA STREET/ READER'S FEAST AWARD
- Julie McNeill
- 24 August 2011
4 Comments
Sociologist Eva Cox heard all the vitriol about boat people when, as a five-year-old Jewish girl, she fled Nazi Germany and headed to Australia. My nine-year-old mother was a different kind of boat arrival: one of 135,000 'child migrants' imported under the 'Populate or Perish' policy.
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AUSTRALIA
- Kerry Murphy
- 24 August 2011
4 Comments
This week as we mark the 10th anniversary of Tampa, the High Court is hearing a legal challenge to the Malaysian solution and an inquiry into suicide and self-harm in detention is underway. Meanwhile a new report hopes to change the direction of the debate on refugees.
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AUSTRALIA
- Andrew Hamilton
- 17 August 2011
29 Comments
Suppose that in France under Hitler's occupation, a bloodied man arrived at our doorstep asking for shelter from a Nazi mob. The claim made by the presence of the endangered and injured man would precede questions of fairness and relative need.
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AUSTRALIA
- David Palmer
- 16 August 2011
20 Comments
In this debate, moral passion is common, especially among those who cast themselves as refugee advocates. But moral passion should not be confused with moral superiority. Any claim to occupy the moral high ground in this complex area of public policy is at best brave and at worst self-serving.
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AUSTRALIA
- Gillian Bouras
- 10 August 2011
3 Comments
At least adults have a little hope of understanding the pain, and coping with it. Even the most equable of children must find the experience bewildering at best, and agonising at worst. My eldest son had a period of not eating. His migration as a child remains the defining fact of his life.
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RELIGION
- Frank Brennan
- 09 August 2011
21 Comments
The Malaysia solution has hit a snag called the High Court of Australia. The Government is now in very stormy waters, because the rule of law and the separation of powers do not readily yield to the sound bites of populist sentiment and the fear tactics of politicians.
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AUSTRALIA
- Kerry Murphy
- 27 July 2011
3 Comments
An old legal maxim is 'hard cases make bad law'. Maybe complex cases compromise policy. Refugee law and policy is complex and the Malaysian agreement signed this week is another example of a compromise on human rights principles for political expedience.
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RELIGION
- Frank Brennan
- 27 July 2011
30 Comments
The Malaysian solution is unprincipled, but it might just work — stopping the boats. If other countries try to replicate it, we will have to tear up the Refugee Convention and start again. And the plight of unaccompanied minors transported from our shores to Malaysia will be on our conscience.
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CARTOON
- Fiona Katauskas
- 27 July 2011
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RELIGION
- 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.
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