Webdiary - Founded and Inspired by Margo Kingston

It's quite disgraceful that after one month they have not released the bodies or the names.

Most Australians couldn't give a flying fuck.

You know, it's amazing how deathly quiet the silence concerning this has been, post Xmass.

Folk can be very good at "forgetting", when they think it's a fair course concerning something troubling.

Fiona: Paul, the only reason apart from holiday apathy that I can imagine is the shock - the enormity - of the weather. Not just in QLD, by the way, but just about everywhere in Oz.

Thought the Zabel link was a logical follow up to the issues Carlyle Moulton unpacked, as to a kind of modern "dictation test" mentality built around loosely and selectively observed sections of the immigration act and refugee accords.

Too much Sir Humphrey and nor enough heart or, given things have deteriorated, more likely just plain commonsense, it is self defeating to accomplish success on terms that will prevent your conscience from ever being clear.

What we need now are non-partisan expressions of empathy and understanding. We need our political leaders to unite, not to divide. We need a debate that goes beyond puerile slogans that imply there are simple ways to stop the boats. We need to take into account that there are an estimated 43 million displaced peoples worldwide and that we are dealing with a global problem that requires a mix of global, regional and local solutions. We need to bear in mind that this is an enduring human drama, and that desperate people will continue to embark upon the journey in years to come.

Please read this excellent article.

I never thought I would find myself agreeing with anything said by Andrew Bolt, but in blaming Gillard for the tragedy at Christmas Island he is at least partly right. Gillard, Abbott and other Australian politicians who choose to use boat refugees as a wedge issue or choose not to effectively oppose this use by others are higher in the chain of blame than the people smugglers who crewed the sunken boat though of course not as high as the warlords of Iraq and Afghanistan who prompted the boat passengers to flee in the first place, or the mega warlords like Bush, Cheney, Blair and Howard who invaded Iraq and Afghanistan to prolong the refugee generating chaos.

Fact:- Refugees flee tyrannical governments.

Fact:- Refugees migrate to countries that have signed the 1951 UN convention on refugees and do not choose to stay in countries like Indonesia that have not.

Fact:- The 1951 UN convention on refugees allows claimants of refugee status to arrive at the border of a signatory country and claim asylum.

Fact:- The UN convention does not require that refugees have visas for the signatory country.

Fact:- A person who arrives at the border without a visa in Australia is called an "unlawful immigrant" and this terminology is unfortunate but this does not mean the same as "illegal immigrant". An unlawful migrant who is a refugee is NOT doing anything wrong.

Fact:- A country that is a signatory to the UN refugee convention has accepted the obligation to take all genuine refugees that arrive at the border, they cannot vet them for good character or limit the numbers allowed each year to a number deemed acceptable by existing citizens.

Fact:- When refugees move they often do so in large numbers and it is not unreasonable for the citizens of destination countries to say that there are limits to the numbers that they should allow in based on fears of being swamped. Anyone who doubts this, go to an Australian country town, visit the refugee camp of the descendants of unlawful migrants who arrived 40,0000 years ago on the outskirts of town and ask them about 1788, or visit Gaza and ask the Palestinians about the Jewish refugees who arrived in the 20th century and whose descendants are bombing them from F16s.

Opinion:- It is my opinion that the rate of arrival of refugees in Australia has not reached a rate that threatens the hegemony of the Anglo-Celtic culture.

Fact:- There are many vocal persons in Australia who do find the current rate of refugee arrival unacceptable and there are politicians who pander to them and other politicians who lack the courage to argue the opposite.

Fact:-The rate at which refugees want to migrate to Australia makes a significant proportion of Australians nervous.

Fact:- There are three ways refugees can reach Australia's borders:-

1/ By aircraft;

2/ By boat;

3/ By swimming.

Fact:- One cannot board an international flight to Australia without a passport and a visa.

Question:- Does Australia give visas to people specifically for the purpose of claiming refugee status or to people without passports and if so in any numbers that apply?

Thought. If Australia does not allow immigration by air by refugee claimants who can afford the fare and if it can prevent travel of unlawful migrants to Australia by boat hen it can achieve the contradictory goals of limiting the number of arrivals to what the denizens of talk back radio land will accept while maintaining the pretence that it is meeting its self-accepted obligations under the UN convention on refugees.

Conclusion:-

The thought in the previous paragraph identifies the root cause of all the political obfuscation that is going on in Australia about refugees arriving by boat. Some people including politicians fear that refugees want to arrive in excessive numbers, some politicians and commentators are exploiting these fears as a wedge issue and some other politicians and commentators are refusing to raise the obvious counter arguments for fear of losing political capital. I will refrain from suggesting which politicians and commentators fit into which categories.

Let's consider what would happen if a group of refugees in Indonesia without Australian visas tried to charter an aeroplane and that aeroplane attempted to ferry them to Australia.

Would the aeroplane be allowed to take off in Indonesia?

Would the aeroplane be allowed to land in Australia?

If the aeroplane did land in Australia would Australia confiscate it and would Australia burn it as it does the boats of the poor fisherman/people smugglers who currently provide the only means by which visaless people can reach the Australian border to claim refugee status?

The definition of arrival of refugees by boat as a problem that has to be solved by application of the criminal law is the core of Australia's hypocrisy. Australia could do the honest thing and withdraw from the UN convention on refugees on the basis of need to limit the number to protect its borders, but it does not want to do this, yet it wants to limit the numbers because too many of the people arriving by boat are genuine refugees.

People smugglers are doing nothing wrong beyond using unseaworthy boats and overloading them, but if you know that your boat is going to be confiscated and burned when it reaches Australia why would you use a valuable seaworthy boat and why limit the number of paying customers to a safe number?

Yes Julia Gillard is more to blame for the tragedy at Christmas Island than the poor people smugglers crewing the boat and those that organized the trip, because she refuses to allow refugees without false travel documents (ie. visas for Australia for some reason other than claiming refugee status, like business or tourism) to board safe airworthy unoverloaded aircraft bound for Australia.

Julia Gillard has raised the idea of an offshore refugee processing centre in Indonesia, but I suspect that she does not mean in her plans for the centre that genuine refugees arriving at it would be allowed into Australia at the same rate at which they arrive, but if the centre does not allow for this possibility it will not lessen the incentive for genuine refugees to board leaky unseaworthy overloaded boats and risk the rocks of Christmas Island.

Eeewww!

Re the two linchpin questions near the end of Marilyn's post, some of the

"You'd better not shout,
Better not cry
cos...." ,

etc.

Marilyn, you say "No one is to blame" and in the same breath ask "Why was the navy tracking them for two days well aware that conditions on the island were terrible and let them proceed anyway?"

It sure sounds as though you are blaming the navy.

I am sure you are aware that Home Affairs Minister Brendan O'Connor, speaking from Christmas Island today, has confirmed the asylum boat was not being tracked.

You forgot to mention that bit, but then again that would have spoiled your little rant.

"...ranting haters...".

Yes, I was appalled at some of the callous responses at tabloid media concerning this disaster on a huge scale. I can't think of anyone I'd hate so much as to wish  a death upon them, like the one suffered by fifty or sixty people just now at Xmass Island.

That some people actually celebrate it is to me a frightening sign of our own deterioration as a civilisation; the level of ignorance built up through dumbing down by politicans and media.

Surely the amount of ignorant people about, starting with Andrew Bolt, is disturbing evidence of dumbing down and society's consequent attendant inability therefore to work out the actual meaning of  real world situations, or function to inform or heal itself.

The event itself, and some of the responses, demonstrate how much Australians and civil society have been coshed over the last twenty years; this sort of thing ought to be history by now.