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Last week's changes to Australia's asylum policy remove the worst aspects of a cruel system. The real test is if the Rudd Government is willing to take on the causes of forced migration, rather than continuing to shift the burden elsewhere.
Yesterday's announcement of the Government's policy shift away from indefinite detention of asylum seekers brings Australia closer to UNHCR recommendations. It remains to be seen if it will have the courage of its convictions if more boats do arrive.
The text is from Professor Frank Brennan's 2008 Institute of Justice Studies Oration from 22 May 2008.
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.
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.
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.
Former Labor minister John Button anticipated the current low point in political discourse, with defenders and critics of government policy having lost the capacity to engage in dialogue, particularly in the field of public morality.
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.
On your bus, Kerala leads, Sudan in Australia, Coming to terms.
The trafficking of women highlights the consequences of the government’s policy on illegal immigration
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