Flashback: The Tampa Disgrace
The Australian government recently decided to adopt a tougher stance in relation to refugees who arrive here informally. In adopting that stance, the government has exposed Australia to international censure. It has put us in breach of our obligations under international conventions, and it has betrayed a deeply unattractive element in the Australian character. It did this for electoral advantage, at a time when Australia receives a minimal number of refugees, and treats appallingly those who arrive here.
The government’s handling of the Tampa “crisis” was a triumph of electoral cynicism over humanitarian need. It exposed the difficulty Australians have in acknowledging the conflict of need and advantage. The refugee problem involves a choice between minor self-sacrifice and major betrayal of humanitarian standards.
Articles
I entirely agree with remarks of Malcom Fraser and Julian Burnside - australia, to my mind, is becoming a totalitarian regime, that can have little international credibility when criticising human rights abuses in other regimes. It is a sorry day.
The Tampa crisis marked the beginning of a long period of feeling deeply ashamed to be an Australian and of profound pessimism about my country and its people. I will always feel ashamed of all the lies , betrayals and cruelties of the past six years but I am somewhat encouraged by the many people and groups who recognise the government hubris which leads towards dictatorship and are working hard to reclaim Australia as a just nation.
When I arrived in this country nearly 40 years ago it seemed to me that the ethos of a “fair go” and the spirit of mateship were alive and well.
That is why I loved the place, settled here and became a citizen, but….. what has happened to change that so radically ?
Or do we have the government we deserve ? After all we voted them in.
Wake up, wake up !
Julian, just watched the last few minutes of your Tv debate on the ABC.
That discussion as well as the this article has driven home the fact that, we really do need a Bill of Rights.
It seems to me that neither liberal nor labor can be trusted to do the right thing
Thanks to people like Mr. Burnside & Mr. Fraser who continually speak up for the rights of refugees. Surely people who come to Australia as refugees should be treated with upmost respect, dignity and processed quickly. We need to be openhearted and not put them in detention centres. Our policy need to be changed in preparation for the huge increase of climate change refugees.
Having watched Julian Burnside in his appearance on “Differance of Opinion” last night, I am more than ever convinced that he and others like him are all that stand between ordinary decent citizens and this disgraceful government that purports to call itself democratic, but is in fact almost totalitarian in its disregard for the basic rule of law. Burnside deserves the utmost respect and admiration of all thinking citizens.
August 21st 2001 was the day Australia lost its soul.
I would dearly love to see Malcolm Fraser and Julian Burnside speak up for the Iraqi refugees now fleeing the horror that is Iraq today.
I personally know of an Iraqi family…a good family may I say, trying to survive in Syria. They are desperate.
I will never forgive John Howard, ever, for committing us to this immoral war with its horrific consequences.
At the time of Tampa I was on an AusAID posting to PNG. On return I was put in charge of Pacific Solution related aid to Nauru. By default I became a member of the PM’s task force on ‘illegal migrants’. The core business of this group is to construct & re-engineer the legal, logistical & administrative underpinnings of boat arrivals policy and to spin the official line for political masters. Lawyers are central to the exercise to test and tweak the legal ramifications and inner workings of excising chunks of Australia from the migration zone. I also joined an Immigration Dept committee on the Nauru detention facilities, which regularly and perfunctorily discussed how to manage detainees who had self-harmed or were experiencing varying degrees of physical and emotional trauma. It was a dehumanising, soul-destroying experience, which saw me take early retirement and become a refugee advocate.
August 21st, 2001 will live in infamy as a day when Australia betrayed itself as well as desperate refugees. That an Australian government could hold and display such misanthropic behaviour for purely electoral gain is almost unbelievable. That is, of course, until you think of the attacks on Afghanistan and Iraq, children overboard, the waterfront dispute, AWB,IR deform, and many other cynical stunts Howard’s government perpetrates on our society. The exploitation of the Tampa situation, the Pacific solution and the cruel and inhuman immuring of refugees in prison camps show a man who will stop at nothing to get his own way and retain power. His government is one of which all Australians should be ashamed. Those who support it should consider what sort of people they are.
How about starting a petition demanding resumption of the enquiry into the circumstances surrounding the sinking of SIEVX…..or is this better left until after the next election?
ellen goodman
Yes - SIEV-X must not be forgotten. To hell with the new anti Terror Laws, we need all honest politicians, officials and whistle-blowers to unite on this and expose SIEV-X for what a lot of people know it to be - John Howard’s WATERGATE. If Labor is in power by Nov 07, it’s Day One of a return to the REAL Australian values.