The ALP’s announcement last week of its new policy to process and resettle all future asylum seekers in Papua New Guinea (PNG) comes as a new low in what has been a succession of increasingly depraved refugee policies since the ALP took office.
Following the excision of mainland Australia from the Australian migration zone in May, which allowed the Australian government to process all refugees arriving to Australia offshore and refuse them settlement in Australia, the PNG proposal cements the government’s position on refusing to settle refugees in Australia. Rudd’s declaration that “as of today, asylum seekers who come here by boat without a visa will never be settled in Australia” is an admission that he plans to rescind any obligations Australia may have had as a signatory to the refugee convention.
Foisting off our responsibilities to refugees on PNG is not a morally or pragmatically viable solution for Australia. PNG is an impoverished nation that has difficulty providing its population with basic necessities, with 37 percent of people living below the poverty line. It therefore seems absurd that PNG should shoulder the responsibility of providing resources to help refugees that seek aid in Australia. Even more absurd is the plan for Australia to fund hospitals and schools in PNG as recourse: although on its face this may appear to be a humanitarian venture, Australian aid is provided with the caveat that it is used in Australia’s national interest. This plan, therefore is little more than an imperialistic venture and unlikely to aid the people of PNG any more than the $500 million in aid Australia already sends; it amounts to barely more than bribery. The PNG “solution” is a farcical plan by the ALP: an inefficient, exorbitantly expensive venture that undermines Australia’s commitments to maintaining the human rights of refugees.
But what are the other options? Labor has managed to outflank the Liberals to the right on this issue, who currently support the Pacific Solution and mandatory offshore processing. This is hardly an improvement from the current situation for refugees who, under this plan, face indefinite detention in hell-holes that breed mental illness, waiting to be placed on non-existent processing lists. Anyone who supports the humane treatment of refugees knows this isn’t an alternative that can be supported.
On the other hand, the Greens, who are often touted as bastions for refugee rights, support mandatory 30 day detention followed by community processing. Mandatory detention, however, is by no means the norm in refugee processing. Until 1992, all refugees in Australia were processed in Australian communities. The racist, scaremongering tactics used by Australian governments over the last two decades have distorted the desperate reality of refugee’s lives. They have been de-humanised as “boat people”, a menace from across the seas, for the sole purpose of being used as a tool in self-serving political discourse. The ideas behind mandatory detention are not in the interests of refugees or the Australian public.
Quite clearly then, a vote at the ballot box isn’t going to affect the way the Australian government treats refugees in a structurally significant way. If we want to see a refugee intake program that treats refugees humanely we’re going to have to fight for it. The government needs to know the people of Australia will not sit idly by as it denigrates asylum seekers for its own political gains.
In this we can take our cues from the refugees themselves who have led a steady campaign of resistance against their unjust detention in the form of hunger strikes and defacing their detention centres. Most recently, protesters in detention at Nauru burnt the centre to the ground and hundreds of asylum seekers escaped in response to the new PNG proposal. Inspiring displays of defiance like this force the government to take notice of people they would rather ignore. We in Australia can also force our government to take notice of how abhorrent we find their policy through direct protest action.
Under Howard, thousands of people came out to protest temporary protection visas and offshore processing as an abrogation of refugee’s rights. This forced Labor, upon election, to shift left, getting rid of Temporary Protection Visas and offshore processing at least while they felt pressured to do so by the people they claim to represent. As this pressure has waned, we have seen lurch after lurch to the right by the ALP on its treatment of refugees exactly because the refugee movement collapsed, and they think they can get away with it. But this is our chance to fight back.
Snap actions called with just twenty-four hours’ notice attracted thousands of people across the country, including 800 people in Melbourne in the pouring rain, 5 000 protested the week after. We need to let the politicians know we’re willing to fight them on this, because the only way we’ll see meaningful change is if they feel threatened by the power we, as a group, hold.
Students at Monash who want to get involved in the fight for refugee rights should come along to an MRAC public forum ‘People not Election Props: the Papua New Guinea Solution and the need to fight back’ on Thursday 1st August at 1pm in Wholefoods.
