News & Politics - Australian News # 3

**sunnykerr** · 07-05-2014, 09:51 AM

Also, right off the bat, I'll add the same disclaimer that was on the opening post of the first and second "Australian News thread," which is that this is a thread for what I was raised to call Oceania, but what I've been told to call Australia.

So this is meant to be a thread about Australia proper, certainly, but also New Zealand, PNG, the Solomon Islands and so forth.

Again, if anyone from that region could let us know what they would rather have this thread be called, please do so.

**sunnykerr** · 07-05-2014, 09:56 AM

Quote:

Tony Abbott criticised for "unsettled" Australia remark

Australia's Prime Minister Tony Abbott has been criticised for saying that Australia was "unsettled" before the British arrived.

He said on Thursday night that Australia owes its existence to the British, as it was previously "unsettled or scarcely settled".

He was answering a question on foreign investment at a Melbourne conference.

An indigenous leader said the comments were offensive and his chief indigenous adviser called them "silly".

Mr Abbott was talking about the importance of foreign investment to Australia when he said: "I guess our country owes its existence to a form of foreign investment by the British government in the then unsettled, or scarcely settled, Great South Land."

Mr Warren Mundine, chairman of the prime minister's indigenous advisory council, said it was "a silly thing to say."

He told the Sydney Morning Herald: "I just thought it was a bizarre comment."

'Occupation'

Aboriginal opposition senator Nova Peris told local media that Mr Abbott's comments were "highly offensive, dismissive of indigenous peoples and simply incorrect".

She said British settlement was not foreign investment, but "occupation".

However, Tony Wright, national affairs editor for The Age newspaper, argued that Mr Abbott's comment was "factually correct in law".

Mr Wright pointed out that the High Court had ruled in a 1992 case that the settlement of Australia refers to the arrival of Europeans, adding that Mr Abbott's problem was that by using the word "unsettled", he "made it possible for his critics to assume he meant uninhabitated."

Mr Abbott is no stranger to controversy. He sparked a national furore in May when he winked and smiled during a radio chat with a caller who was upset about his budget proposals.

He has also been accused of making sexist remarks in the past. In 2012 former prime minister Julia Gillard called him a misogynist - a label he has strongly rejected.

Anyone with even a small amount of education knows Abbott was being an idiot when he said that.

I understand why Aboriginal communities would be offended.

But, honestly, it's such a profoundly, pretensiously moronic thing to say that it seems to me like Mr Abbott is just revealing his own character here.

I don't know anything about the allegations that he's made misogynistic remarks, but he's shown so little regard for anyone who's not a rich, white, Australian, that I find myself perfectly to reconcile the idea that Mr Abbott is also a misogynist.

**sunnykerr** · 07-07-2014, 04:05 PM

Quote:

Australia court blocks migrants' return to Sri Lanka

The Australian government's attempt to return 153 asylum seekers to Sri Lanka has been blocked by the high court.

The move comes after Australia confirmed on Monday it had returned 41 people to Sri Lanka after screening their asylum claims at sea on Sunday.

Politicians and rights campaigners say the asylum seekers, who include Tamils, could face persecution back home.

Australia's Prime Minister Tony Abbott has promised to get tough with refugees.

The interim injunction will prevent the Australian government from returning the 153 asylum seekers until Tuesday afternoon, when the matter is set to be heard in the high court, ABC News reports.

Immigration Minister Scott Morrison acknowledged on Monday that a boat-load of 41 people had been handed back to Sri Lanka, while not commenting on the fate of a second boat reportedly carrying about 150 people.

He said they were transferred at sea just outside the Sri Lankan port of Batticaloa on Sunday. "All persons intercepted and returned were subjected to an enhanced screening process," he said.

The government says only four of those returned on Sunday were Tamils.

Sri Lanka has said that those returned would be charged with leaving the country illegally and those found guilty would face "rigorous imprisonment".

Last week, the UN refugee agency UNHCR expressed "profound concern" about the reported situation.

Sri Lanka has been under heavy international pressure over alleged human rights violations during the final phase of the war against Tamil separatists, which ended in 2009.

Rights groups say Tamils still face violence at the hands of the military.

Australia has been taking a tough approach to asylum seekers who try to reach the country by perilous sea journeys.

Under current policy, asylum seekers who arrive by boat are sent to detention camps in Papua New Guinea or Nauru. If found to be refugees, they will be resettled there, not in Australia.

Australia says its asylum policy - which is also widely believed to involve towing boats back to Indonesian waters - is aimed at saving lives.

It is the first time the Australian government has confirmed it has intercepted people at sea, screened them and returned them to their country of origin.

They were returned at sea?

Why does that sound like the Australians put the asylum seekers on a boat, got out into international waters and then promptly dumped said asylum seekers overboard?

**sunnykerr** · 07-14-2014, 12:38 PM

Quote:

New Zealand fights 'plague' of stoats and rats

The New Zealand government has given the go-ahead for the poisoning of "a plague" of rats and stoats which it says threatens the country's native wildlife.

A controversial bio-degradable poison, called 1080, is to be dropped onto one million hectares (3,861 sq miles) of forest to kill the pests, TV New Zealand reports. Government figures suggest that without intervention the rat population could increase tenfold this year to 30 million. The rise is attributed to a heavy fall of seed in the country's extensive beech forests.

It's thought that once the forests' supply of fallen seeds is exhausted, the predators will turn on native birds. According to Conservation Minister Nick Smith, the lives of millions of kiwi, kawa and kea birds are at stake. "Our kiwi will not exist in the wild for our grandchildren if we do not act now," he said.

The use of 1080 is opposed by some environmental groups. Campaigner Nicky Calcott told the New Zealand Herald there's little proof of the "plague", and said that 1080 has also been known to kill the endangered kea bird, native only to New Zealand's South Island. However the government, which has sunk NZ$21m (£10.8m; US$18.5m) into its "Battle for our Birds" programme over five years, insists that setting traps for millions of predators is not a viable or practical option. "People are dreaming if they think we can do this without poisons like 1080 - you can't trap 30 million rats," Dr Smith told Radio New Zealand.

Stoats, introduced to the islands by European settlers in the 19th Century, pose a greater threat to avian populations and number around 25,000, New Zealand Herald reports.

Isn't that fantastic?

They're risking real environmental damages to stem a plague no one can actually prove is happening.

Yeah, that's not stupid at all.

**sunnykerr** · 07-16-2014, 07:28 PM

Quote:

Tamil asylum seekers being held at sea in windowless locked rooms

High court documents lodged by lawyers acting for 86 of the asylum seekers reveal group has had no opportunity to deliver protection claims and have not been provided translators

More than 150 Tamil asylum seekers on board an Australian border protection vessel are being detained in windowless locked rooms with men kept apart from their families against their will, newly released high court documents have revealed.

A statement of claim document submitted to the court by lawyers acting for 86 of the 153 asylum seekers also reveals that they have had no opportunity to deliver their protection claims – despite all claiming to be refugees – and had no access to a qualified translator despite almost all being unable to speak English.

The document shows that lawyers will challenge the legality of the detentions on the vessel, which Guardian Australia understands to be the customs ship Ocean Protector.

Lawyers will also argue that any decision to move the asylum seekers straight to offshore detention would be unlawful.

The Australian immigration minister Scott Morrison has refused to offer any public comment on the fate of the 153, who were intercepted by Australian border officials in late June after departing by boat from southern India on 11 June – meaning they have been at sea for over a month.

The high court hearing has been the only public mechanism to obtain information about what is happening to the 153.

The statement of claim, written after lawyers had the opportunity to speak to their clients on board the vessel, states the immigration department have only requested basic information from the asylum seekers such as names, dates of birth and addresses. They have not been asked to discuss their reasons for leaving India or been told where the Australian government is planning to take them.

At a high court hearing last week, counsel for Morrison argued that because the 153 were intercepted outside Australia’s territorial waters, they had no rights under the Australian Migration Act.

The court document show that lawyers plan to challenge the legality of the asylum seekers' detention under executive powers and the Maritime Powers Act.

Last Thursday the human rights barrister Julian Burnside said the detention of the 153 was tantamount to piracy.

The UNHCR has voiced “profound concern” at the treatment of those on board and those on a separate boat carrying 41 asylum seekers from Sri Lanka who were subsequently handed over the Sri Lankan navy in an unprecedented on-sea transfer.

At a hearing last week, the government gave the high court an undertaking not to hand the 153 asylum seekers to the Sri Lankan navy without 72 hours written notice.

Morrison has been contacted for comment.

It is expected that the case will be heard at the end of the month after its preliminary hearing on Friday.

This is just getting so far past gross, I don't even have the words anymore.

These people, the ones who make these decisions, to put human beings like that... they have some serious karma coming their way.

You don't treat human beings that way.

You don't treat criminals that way.

You don't treat animals that way.

It's just not done.

**sunnykerr** · 07-21-2014, 07:22 PM

Quote:

PNG not allowing witnesses to Reza Barati's death to leave Manus Island

A number of asylum seekers have been told that they cannot return home voluntarily until the investigation into Reza Barati's death is concluded

Papua New Guinea immigration officials are telling a number of asylum seekers who witnessed the death of Reza Barati inside the Manus Island detention centre that they cannot return home until the investigation into his death has concluded.

This is despite some choosing to return to their home countries and no charges being pressed in the investigation, which has yet to see a single suspect interviewed.

Advocates who have regular contact with asylum seekers inside the Manus centre have told Guardian Australia that those who received this advice are allegedly also being told informally that if they withdraw their witness statements, they will be allowed to return.

A letter, obtained by Guardian Australia, being sent to the witnesses from PNG immigration reads: “The Royal PNG constabulary has requested that you will be required to remain in PNG until the investigation and judicial process has concluded.”

The news comes as two asylum seekers allege they were assaulted by detention centre staff after they were taken to segregation following complaints they made about phone and internet access in the centre.

The two men were so-called “delegates” in the centre and had been elected by fellow detainees to represent their interests during meetings with detention centre staff.

The men were taken into segregation by staff last Monday and were released over the weekend.

Ben Pynt, of advocacy group Humanitarian Research Partners has corresponded with both men who claim they were beaten by detention centre staff and threatened with being handed over to PNG locals.

Guardian Australia has subsequently spoken to one of the men who claimed “our life is in danger” after being released.

Pynt said that both men were witnesses to 23-year-old Barati’s death. According to their correspondence with Pynt, the men were asked to sign a document while in segregation, although it is unclear what this related to.

The immigration minister, Scott Morrison, has yet to respond to request for comment on the allegations from Guardian Australia but told Fairfax media last week that the two men became “abusive and aggressive” and were moved to segregation.

In March, Fairfax reported that charges over Barati’s death were expected “within days” – but none have been pressed.

An Australian government-commissioned report on the unrest in February and numerous witness accounts have implicated PNG mobile squad police in the violence.

Okay, which is it now?

Do they have too many people coming in or what?

Because some of these people are willing to go home and now they can't, even though they haven't committed a crime, aren't being charged with anything and aren't expected to be charged with anything.

At some point, that's kidnapping.

**sunnykerr** · 07-26-2014, 10:36 AM

Quote:

Australia to move detained asylum group onshore

A group of 157 asylum seekers held at sea will be brought to the Australian mainland to be detained, Australia's immigration minister says.

The group have been held at sea by customs officials for almost a month.

Rights groups had voiced serious concerns about their treatment.

The case came to light earlier this month as Australia detained a separate boat of Sri Lankan asylum seekers, screened their asylum claims at sea and returned them to Sri Lanka.

Human rights activists filed a legal challenge aimed at preventing similar handling of this second group of people.

Lawyers say the group, which departed from India, includes Sri Lankan Tamils.

Rights groups say Tamils can still face intimidation and violence in Sri Lanka, five years after the end of the civil war, which pitted the majority Sinhalese Sri Lankan military against Tamil separatists.

Under international treaties, Australia cannot return people to places where they might face persecution. UN refugee body UNHCR has also expressed concern about the fairness of on-water screening of asylum claims.

'Will not settle'

Australian officials have not revealed where the group were being held.

Immigration Minister Scott Morrison said on Friday that - following talks with Indian officials - they would be brought to Australia.

Consular officials from the Indian High Commission would be given access to determine identities and "arrange where possible the return of any persons to India".

India would also consider taking non-nationals who were Indian residents, he said.

It was not clear what might happen to those who did not fall into this category, nor was the extent to which asylum claims would be assessed addressed.

But Mr Morrison said no members of the group would be allowed to settle in Australia.

He declined to comment on where the group would be detained but local reports say they are being transferred to the Curtin detention centre via the Cocos Islands.

'Prolong suffering'

The move is an apparent set-back for the government, which enforces tough policies aimed at ending the arrival of asylum boats.

Australia detains all those who arrive by boat. In recent months detainees have been processed offshore, in camps in Papua New Guinea and Nauru. Those found to be refugees will be settled in PNG and Nauru, not Australia.

Reports have also emerged in recent months of Australia towing boats back to Indonesia, the most common embarkation point.

The government says the aim is to save lives by preventing people getting on dangerous boats. But refugee advocates and the UN have voiced increasing concern about the policies, with severe criticism of conditions in Australia's detention camps.

Responding to Mr Morrison's announcement, Amnesty International said the development showed that "stranding a boatload of people in the middle of the sea, in an effort to 'stop the boats', has achieved nothing".

"All it has done is prolong and exacerbate the suffering of more than 150 asylum seekers and their families," said Graeme McGregor, the group's refugee campaign co-ordinator.

All asylum seekers must have the opportunity to undergo a "full, fair and rigorous" assessment for refugee status, he said.

The world is too busy emulating this terrible example at the moment to protest.

But that's gonna change at some point.

**sunnykerr** · 07-28-2014, 06:06 PM

Quote:

'Abolish question time': Mark Latham's manifesto for rebuilding trust in politics

Former Labor leader targets compulsory voting, inflated promises and media partisanship in attempt to break 'cycle of apathocracy'

Parliamentary question time has lost its original purpose and should be abolished, the former Labor leader Mark Latham argues in a new book, while calling for the establishment of Reserve Bank-style bodies to defuse politically toxic policy areas.

Latham said disillusionment with major party politics had given way to contempt, and leaders must adapt to a new reality: a more self-reliant, affluent and educated community that was less trusting of institutions, sick of old-style politics, and more attuned to the scourge of “spin”.

In the book, released on Tuesday and titled The Political Bubble: Why Australians Don’t Trust Politics, Latham says governments across the western world are struggling to deliver improvements for their people, with technological change and globalisation neutering traditional policy areas. In Australia the delegation of utility pricing to independent regulatory bodies and the advent of national competition policy has further reduced the role of government in economic settings.

Inflated or broken promises by both sides of politics have contributed to greater voter disillusionment, he writes, while parties have become less representative as a result of shrinking membership numbers.

“We are witnessing a major disruption in democratic practice,” Latham writes. “The formal structures of politics still function by their traditional rules and conventions, while the people they supposedly represent have moved on to a new world of self-reliance and institutional distrust.”

His 10 proposals for change include the introduction of voluntary voting in Australia, on the basis it could force parties to develop policy ideas that captured public imagination, along with with caps on election spending, transparency measures to expose meetings between lobbyists and ministers, and expansion of community ballots to widen input into the selection of candidates.

Latham’s prescription for arresting voter apathy – “the cycle of apathocracy” – is based on the belief that Australia “will never return to an era of mass membership politics and democratic participation”. Instead, party politics should be brought into line with public expectations: “less obtrusive, less grandiose, less pretentious”.

He says the public increasingly sees through party politics “characterised by chronic exaggerations: the wild hyperbole of the spin cycle and the partisan bickering of manufactured outrage”. Parliamentarians and the media are “viewed as play-actors in a pantomime far removed from the national interest”. The system must respond by becoming more “genuine” and “realistic” about what it can do for people, Latham writes.

The article is much longer, if anyone cares to read more.

But it seems a bad suggestion to me.

You don't remove popular cynicism by removing access to information.

Or maybe that's just me?

**sunnykerr** · 08-02-2014, 09:15 AM

Quote:

Christmas Island detainees stripped of basic medication, inquiry told

Immigration department accused of covering up rate of detained children’s mental illness
Doctor and social worker testify that children are in an unsafe environment on Nauru
Human rights commissioner: ‘The inhumanity, the cruelty of these processes is very apparent’

The immigration department has attempted to cover up alarming rates of children’s mental health problems in detention, an Australian human rights commission inquiry has heard.

Former and current detention centre workers gave evidence to the inquiry into children in detention that conditions were substandard, unsafe and inappropriate.

Doctors who worked on Christmas Island recounted shocking details of medical neglect, including stripping asylum seekers of basic medication when they arrived, as documented in a letter of concern written by 15 doctors working on Christmas Island and reported by Guardian Australia.

Former workers in detention centres on Nauru also gave harrowing accounts of the conditions for children, including the case of sexual assault on a teenage boy, first reported by Guardian Australia in June.

A former departmental official described the purpose of immigration detention as “to remove hope” for asylum seekers.

The inquiry heard that the immigration minister, Scott Morrison, has agreed to appear before the panel, making the prospect of another public hearing likely.

Mental health statistics covered up, says senior doctor in immigration detention:

Dr Peter Young, the former medical director for mental health for IHMS – the private healthcare provider in immigration detention – was compelled to attend the hearing in Sydney, where he said data presented to the department within the past two weeks had received a “negative” response and that the department “asked us to withdraw the figures from our report”.

His evidence drew gasps from the gallery as a projected image of the statistics showed that 15% of children in detention on the mainland and on Christmas Island were scored three-four on the HoNOSCA (Health of the Nation Outcome Scales for Child and Adolescent mental health) for symptoms of emotional distress – Young said a score of two was “clinically significant”.

These is more on the site, if you click on the link.

Given the general lack of response, beyond my own outrage, to these stories, I'll leave you all to it and wait till someone says something...

**sunnykerr** · 08-04-2014, 04:27 PM

Quote:

Scott Morrison calls for reinterpretation of refugee convention

Immigration minister says convention is being used by people smugglers to ‘run death voyages’

The immigration minister, Scott Morrison, has called for a reinterpretation of the refugee convention, arguing the framework outlining countries’ obligations to those fleeing persecution is being used “as a tool by people smugglers to basically run death voyages”.

The high court will hear the minister’s arguments in the context of a 50-year-old Afghan citizen of Hazara ethnicity who arrived in Australia by boat in February 2012 and feared being killed by the Taliban for working as a truck driver carrying construction materials.

The court will consider whether people may be found not to meet the definition of refugee in circumstances where they could avoid persecution by changing their occupation.

A research fellow working in international law at Melbourne Law School, Martin Clark, said if the court found in favour of Morrison, it “would likely expand the range of things that the minister could decide are reasonable to expect of applicants, and on that basis deny those applicants protection in Australia”.

This might allow the government to pay closer attention to hypothetical changes in conduct as an easier way to deny protection, Clark said.

Documents submitted to the court show the man, identified as “SZSCA”, started work as a silver jeweller in 1977 and continued to work as a jeweller until 2001. He moved with his family to Kabul in 2007 and worked as a self-employed truck driver.

The man was stopped by the Taliban in January 2011 and found to be carrying construction materials, accounting to court documents and evidence presented to previous hearings.

SZSCA alleges he was warned to stop carrying construction materials or he would be killed, because the Taliban believed his work was assisting the Afghan government or foreign agencies.

The man left Afghanistan in December 2011, a month after receiving a letter from the Taliban that allegedly outlined a threat to kill him, and arrived in Australia “as an offshore entry person”.

In June 2012 a delegate of the then immigration minister refused to grant SZSCA a protection visa, accepting that he had been threatened by the Taliban once but noting that he had the option of doing other, safer work if he returned.

The man sought a review by the Refugee Review Tribunal, which backed the original decision – suggesting he had long-established skills making jewellery and rejecting the notion that his work as a truck driver was a “core aspect” of his identity, beliefs or lifestyle which he should not be expected to modify or forego.

But the federal circuit court quashed the tribunal’s decision and then, in December 2013, the full court of the federal court dismissed the minister’s appeal. The matter will now be considered by the high court.

Lawyers for Morrison have submitted to the high court: “If his position is that he insists upon driving trucks (carrying building materials or not), he is not outside of Afghanistan because of any well-founded fear of persecution – given the safety that the tribunal has found he would have by remaining in Kabul as a jeweller.”

Clark said it was not the first time Australian courts had considered questions of changes to behaviour on return that would likely avoid future persecution.

“A series of cases have been decided relating to people who would be persecuted on the basis of homosexuality, in which courts have held expecting a person to take ‘reasonable steps’ to avoid persecution is the wrong kind of inquiry,” Clark said.

“But the significance of this challenge is whether or not the ‘reasonable’ requirement should apply to considerations that are not closely related to characteristics that are protected by the convention – like political beliefs, religious views, and so on.”

Morrison said the SZSCA case dealt with “a level of specificity and interpretation of the refugee convention which we would argue goes beyond what the obligations are”.

Commenting on the case after a report in the Australian newspaper on Monday, Morrison told radio station 2GB the court would consider the relevance of matters “within a person’s control” such as what sort of job would put them “in a position of exposure”.

“I know a lot of listeners sometimes say why don’t you just get out of the refugee convention, but the difficulty we have got with the convention is not the document itself but how lawyers and others have interpreted it for the last 50-60 years, not just in this country but around the world,” Morrison told the conservative radio broadcaster Ray Hadley.

“Our courts draw on all of their interpretations and what started out being a pretty sensible document over time has had layer upon layer upon layer and it is now being used as a tool by people smugglers to basically run death voyages.”

Clark said Morrison’s comment was “simplistic” as people smugglers were not arguing in Australian courts about the interpretation of the convention.

“Making this point is also unrelated to the SZSCA case,” Clark said.

“As horrible as the deaths at sea issue is, it should be remembered that the government in the SZSCA case is arguing that it should be easier to send people back to countries where, if they act ‘reasonably’, they won’t be killed.

“That does not fit the spirit or purpose of the refugees convention, and whatever one might say about how ‘outdated’ it is, those problems shouldn’t encourage government to send people back to places where they may likely be killed.”

Talk about washing your hands of it all.

Mr Morrison shows the kind of callousness towards his fellow man that I find supremely troublesome.

**sunnykerr** · 08-08-2014, 05:23 PM

Further reason why I'm completely convinced that the Abbott administration's "slash and burn" style of fiscal policy will not help Australia recover in any way:

Quote:

Australian jobless rate will stay high for another two years, warns gloomy RBA

Central bank cuts growth and inflation forecasts in a sure sign that rates will stay at record lows for the foreseeable future

Unemployment will stay high for another two years, growth will continue to be below par and inflation will fall, according to a downbeat assessment of the economy by the Reserve Bank.

The RBA’s warning comes a day after Australia posted its highest jobless rate in 12 years at 6.4% and sent the Australian dollar to a two-month low.

In its quarterly statement on monetary policy released on Friday, the RBA said the economy was struggling to adjust to the winding down of the mining boom.

“The key uncertainties for the domestic economy continue to be centred on the timing and extent of the expected decline in mining investment, the associated rise in resource exports and the further strengthening in non-mining activity,” the RBA said.

“While this `transition’ has been unfolding for some time, helped in part by the very low level of interest rates, there is no guarantee that the rebalancing of spending will be a smooth process.”

It suggested that the RBA will be in no haste to raise interest rates, which have been stuck at an all-time low of 2.5% for the past year.

CommSec economist Savanth Sebastian said it was “no surprise that in such an environment policymakers will maintain stable interest rates and watch and see”.

After a positive start to the year, economic growth has slowed to a more moderate pace as exports declined and retail sales and consumer confidence weakened.

The RBA expects growth will be a little below its long-term trend of around 3.25% over 2014/15 before picking up in the following financial year.

“The unemployment rate is likely to remain elevated for a time and is not expected to decline in a sustained way until 2016,” the central bank says.

Opposition leader Bill Shorten noted unemployment hasn’t been this bad since Prime Minister Tony Abbott was the employment minister in the Howard government.

In a speech to the National Small Business Summit in Melbourne he blasted the government’s “half-baked” plan that forces unemployed people to apply for 40 jobs a month.

But Abbott said everything his government did was about creating jobs and building prosperity. “Our job is to make it easier for (business) to do their job, which in turn is creating jobs,” he told reporters after addressing an Australian Industry Group lunch in Sydney.

However, the RBA said uncertainty surrounding which new budget policy initiatives will be legislated could result in either stronger or weaker growth than forecast.

It has cut its 2014 year-end inflation forecast to two per cent from a previous 2.75% prediction made in May following the abolition of the carbon tax.

The timing of the direct effects of the repeal will depend on the extent to which savings on utility costs are passed on to customers, it says.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission put 250 energy companies on notice this week to estimate to their customers how much the removal of the carbon tax will affect prices.


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