Welcome to Eureka Street
Looking for thought provoking articles?Subscribe to Eureka Street and join the conversation.
Passwords must be at least 8 characters, contain upper and lower case letters, and a numeric value.
Eureka Street uses the Stripe payment gateway to process payments. The terms and conditions upon which Stripe processes payments and their privacy policy are available here.
Please note: The 40-day free-trial subscription is a limited time offer and expires 31/3/24. Subscribers will have 40 days of free access to Eureka Street content from the date they subscribe. You can cancel your subscription within that 40-day period without charge. After the 40-day free trial subscription period is over, you will be debited the $90 annual subscription amount. Our terms and conditions of membership still apply.
Australia's refugee regime may represent the Western world's worst practice. The Government has abolished flawed and dehumanising temporary protection visas, but a more substantial review is required to ensure asylum seekers enjoy equal protection under Australian law.
Senator Chris Evans refused a protection visa to convicted people smuggler 'Mr A', even though he was assessed by Immigration as a refugee. Senator Evans had an opportunity to improve upon the previous government's treatment of asylum seekers, but instead reverted to the same hostile rhetoric.
The situation of Christians in Bethlehem is difficult, and many are leaving. It is hard to shed tears for Jewish victims of the Holocaust while living under Israeli military occupation, and it is equally difficult being part of a Christian minority in a predominately Middle Eastern Muslim society.
The power of the State can be exercised capriciously and unaccountably when the “Don’t ask; don’t tell” approach to government is immune from parliamentary, judicial or public scrutiny. It is the task of lawyers to make it more difficult for politicians to take this approach.
ALP Immigration Policy includes both change and continuity. It gives more priority to teaching English over testing, but there's still too much reliance on ministerial discretion rather than the judicial system.
Compared to that on Nauru, the Christmas Island detention facility might seem to be surrounded by calm seas. But it is exposed by distance, and if a storm of government hostility to asylum seekers blows again, the processes of determining claims there appear to leave asylum seekers dangerously exposed.
There are times when we Australians get the balance between national interest and individual liberty wrong, especially when the individual is a member of a powerless minority. One way of improving the balance is including the judiciary in the calculus, as has now happened in the United Kingdom and New Zealand.
The Howard Government must be given credit for increasing the size of our migration program, including the refugee and humanitarian component. But the deliberations of civil society should provide a fair go for all refugees, including those who arrive by boat without a visa.
Under Section 501 of the Migration Act, you can be told: 'you fail the character test, please respond, but we cannot tell you what are the accusations against you'. Dr Mohammed Haneef has experienced the worst case scenario.
Australia's treatment of refugees has been out of the headlines for some months, perhaps due to changes in the Department after the Cornelia Rau scandal. But despite some improvements, Australian refugee policy remains destructive.
The following is an edited text of an address given by Fr Frank Brennan sj ao, at the launch of his most recent book, Tampering with Asylum.
145-156 out of 168 results.