Webdiary - Founded and Inspired by Margo Kingston

Sadly for our politicians and media we do have a nation run on the rule of law, therefore appeals to the highest court are legal and binding and it would be hard to see how our High Court would consider it legal to break the law the High Court handed down in November last year that says the law applies to all in our territory and natural justice applies even to those we jail on Christmas Island.

This is what Chris Bowen said in 2006. What a contrast to the ALP Government's current behaviour.

No-one is to blame unless we start with the mullahs in Iran who are cracking down on dissidents and Christians and the murderous thugs in Iraq and work our way down to Australia having them jailed in Indonesia and not allowing them safe passage to this country under the law.

This editorial was in response to Media Watch, the Press Council, myself and several others whom the Australian's editor chose to attack because his paper refused to stop using the word “illegal” in response to refugees arriving to seek asylum. The court citations are of course the genuine interpretations of our own parliament’s laws and are not “reems [sic] of drivel”, as they would have known if they bothered to accede to my request to read the truth.

Who am I, who are you, to judge this man as a terrorist when he is far more sinned against than sinner? ... My question is, “Who is the real terrorist here?” This is a book I simply could not put down.

One of the favourite statements made by the [former] Minister is that “people in detention can go home anytime they choose to co-operate with Australian authorities”. But the cases of Akram al Masri and three other Palestinians gave us an excellent opportunity to claim release on a writ of habeas corpus due to the inability of the Minister to have other countries co-operate with his plans.

For all those who want an explanation for this cruelty it seems to come down to a statement made by Philip Ruddock to the Los Angeles Times in April 2002 “if you come separately, you are not entitled to family reunion”. The result is there for all the world to see.

Acknowledging such realities does not fit with the [Howard] government’s consistent practice of demonising asylum seekers, which now extends to children. If the parents of the Afghan boys have heard of the UN Convention on the rights of the child, they certainly could invoke it in an attempt to be reunited with their children. (Mike Steketee)

It’s an irony that Australian law provides for mandatory reporting of suspected child abuse by professionals – and mandatory locking up of child asylum seekers. We call both these practices government policy. One protects, the other destroys. (Jacquie Everitt)

It’s unconscionable that a country could and did do this thing to a child, any child. In discussion with the group I feel we should be able to try harder to find his family, a desire he expressed to me at the interview.  As much as he loves his new family, he’s only 10 and has been alone for nearly 3 years. 

In the future the immigration system will be characterised by strong border security, firm deterrence of unauthorised arrivals, effective and robust immigration processes and respect for the rule of law and the humanity of those seeking migration outcomes. (Senator Chris Evans)

This story is impossibly sad - Amal died of breast cancer in Australia after surviving Saddam Hussein, the water, Indonesia for months and years of anxiety. She did not survive Australia.

Bernie was an ordinary bloke who decided to become something extraordinary and through that became an extraordinary hero in our age, an age where we feared we would no longer have heroes anymore. (Kevin Rudd)

When Vivian Alvarez was found in the Philipines the information of this 33 was already public, so Amanda Vanstone launched an inquiry into the possible illegal detentions of other Australians, or worse other deportations.   247 cases were then sent to the Ombudsman. The most chilling case was the case of LP, an Australian citizen child incarcerated for 149 days as “a visitor to his mother”. Just a guest of the minister in a regime of brutal detention that was utterly illegal. No-one bothered to ascertain if the reality was that the child was a citizen.