Dear Mr Shorten,
Mr Turnbull’s “American solution” for Manus
and Nauru risks re-starting the boats just as much as bringing the
detainees to Australia would have done. There is no prospect of any other
“third-country” solution—if there were, the government would not be sending
detainees to the US.
But not all the detainees, not even all who
have been recognised as refugees, will go to America, http://www.news.com.au/national/politics/us-considers-taking-australian-refugees/news-story/115fb031c864ca200e533748249810f4. The government intends to prioritise women and children
and family groups. This will leave single men (formerly detained on Manus
Island) as long-term indefinite detainees on Nauru.
The ALP should urge that detainees recognised
as refugees, or not yet processed, who are not accepted for re-settlement in
the United States should all be re-settled in Australia.
That would not give any more encouragement to
boat arrivals than the American solution already gives.
John Kilcullen
See:
http://members.iinet.net.au/~akilcull@homemail.com.au/Refugees.html
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Email 15 December 2016:
Dear Mr Shorten,
Labor should propose that all detainees on Nauru and Manus
Island not accepted for resettlement in America should be brought to Australia.
From recent news reports (e.g. http://www.huffingtonpost.com.au/2016/11/12/us-considering-deal-to-resettle-detainees-from-nauru-manus-isla/)
it appears that the Government intends to resettle women, children and family
groups in the US, leaving single men indefinitely on Nauru. The effect on
these men of such unfair treatment is likely to be very serious.
The Government should communicate in the very near future with
each and every one of the asylum-seekers sent to Manus Island and Nauru and
promise them that they will all leave those places by a stated date in the
near future, to go either to the United States (if the Trump administration
agrees) or to Australia. Those who still need to be detained for some good
reason (e.g. that they are not genuine refugees) should be detained in
Australia.
The “drownings” argument, i.e. the claim that if these people
are ever allowed to come to Australia the boats will re-start and people will
drown, applies with at least equal force to re-settlement in the US. To stop
the boats the government has thrown out a “ring of steel”: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-11-14/dozen-naval,-abf-ships-sent-off-to-block-people-smugglers/8023636 While this ring of steel is in place, the Government can
bring the remaining detainees to Australia without any more encouragement to boat
journeys than the US resettlement plan already gives.
While in this country we go into aestivation, in the US big
things are happening, including a decision on the resettlement of detainees.
Now is the time for outspoken intervention.
Yours faithfully,
John Kilcullen
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Email June 2017
Dear Mr
Shorten,
At the coming ACT Labor Conference (29 July) the following motions are on the agenda:
* We call on the Australian
Government to bring all detainees and former detainees now in PNG or Nauru to
Australia as soon as possible. We call on the national leader to pledge that
Labor will bring them all here within the first three months of taking office.
* We regard the Turnbull-Trump
American resettlement deal as at best a partial solution to the offshore
detention problem, since it may take a long time to implement and may not
provide resettlement for all former Manus and Nauru detainees. We call on the
national leader to promise that while US “extreme vetting” is in process, all
the detainees will be in Australia, that those recognised as refugees but not
accepted by the US or other countries will be settled here, and that those who
are to be deported to their country of origin will be deported from here, after
reconsideration of their refugee applications.
In a
Morgan Poll on 17-19 Feb. this year the sample was asked: “Do you think
asylum-seekers on Manus Island and Nauru should be brought here to Australia or
not?”
http://www.roymorgan.com/findings/7159-asylum-seekers-nauru-manus-island-february-a2017-201702222052
Sixty-eight
percent of Labor voters answered Yes. Thus your present position is
out-of-step with the views of two thirds of Labor voters. The electoral
cost of this is Nil, because after all these people still identify as Labor
voters; the treatment of the detainees is not a high-enough-priority issue to
outweigh all their reasons for preferring Labor to the Coalition.
But by
the same token the electoral cost of switching the policy would also be
approximately Nil. A Labor voter would not switch to the Coalition unless
keeping asylum-seekers out is so important to them than it outweighs all their
reasons for preferring Labor. Anyone so strongly of that view will already be
voting One Nation or LNP. And if a switch in policy sent some Labor voters to
the LNP, it would also bring some LNP voters to Labor: 23% of LNP voters want
the detainees brought to Australia, according to the Morgan poll.
Though
the electoral costs either way are not high, your present position does carry heavy
longer-term political costs. The fact that Labor Parliamentarians are so
much out of step with the views of Labor party members and Labor voters on a
humanitarian issue of major importance makes Labor’s claim to stand for humane
values (fairness, equality, human rights, compassion, generosity, etc.) sound
hypocritical. The result of the Labor-LNP “unity ticket” on Manus-Nauru will be
widespread contempt for politicians, disillusionment with politics, further
hollowing-out of political parties, and loss of faith in democracy. Both of the
major political parties refuse in this area to implement values many ethically
concerned Australians support, and a vote for a minor party can have no effect.
... If
preventing the Manus and Nauru detainees from settling in Australia or NZ or
any other attractive first-world country were the only way of preventing
drownings, the Turnbull-Trump agreement would have led to another surge of
boats. America is the first-world country par excellence, a very attractive
destination. Whatever is preventing any surge resulting from the American
arrangement (that may include turn-backs we don’t hear about, or disruptive AFP
operations, or Indonesian government action—whatever it is) would likewise
prevent a surge if the detainees were all brought here. ...
Best
wishes,
John
Kilcullen
The
Morgan poll results are similar to results of other public opinion samplings at
the time of the last federal election:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-06-09/election-2016-vote-compass-asylum-seekers-immmigration/7493064