The new Shadow Minister for Immigration and Citizenship

3 October 2008 : more tales of a new regime, from the alert and alarmed

After only 10 days as Shadow Minister for Immigration and Citizenship, Dr Sharman Stone’s moment of relevance has come. A boat of 14 people seeking asylum has become a knife to sink into the guts of the Rudd government. She is claiming the spotlight by firing off media releases with outrageous claims in the mould of the Howard /Ruddock regime.

Did we know this boat of 14 people has arrived as a consequence of the Labor government? Has she forgotten that more boats arrived during the lifetime of her government than at any other time in history?

People do not leave their lives, families and homes by choice. They run when there is no other choice for survival. With breathtaking lack of logic Ms Stone is running the line that the removal of Temporary Protection Visas has sent asylum seekers sailing off to Australia!

If she had any knowledge of her portfolio, she would know that asylum seekers have no access at all to Hansard, and probably not much more to the Australian media, to know about proposed visa changes. She might also know that these changes are not yet implemented in any case. The Coalition’s recourse to blatant populism, stirring up the old bogy of asylum seekers as a threat, is a bit tired and redundant in the face of the real threat to our way of life currently being played out by the shysters in the American banks and stock markets

. Sadly Ms Stone does not want to let the facts ruin her horror story of the invasion of Australia by 14 people in a boat. The language of threat, illegals and border protection begins again. Nowhere in this gothic tale is there an acknowledgement that these 14 people are a group of asylum seekers exercising their right under the Refugee Convention to seek asylum in Australia which is signatory to the Convention. They are breaking no law just exercising their rights.

Perhaps Ms Stone could begin her apprenticeship to her current role by reading the Refugee Convention, paying particular attention to Article 31.Relating to the Status of Refugees, Article 31 of the 1951 Convention provides as follows:

The Contracting States shall not impose penalties, on account of their illegal entry or presence, on refugees who, coming directly from a territory where their life or freedom was threatened in the sense of Article 1, enter or are present in their territory without authorization, provided they present themselves without delay to the authorities and show good cause for their illegal entry or presence.

Indeed all politicians from both sides could provide more principled leadership if they read and abided by the Refugee Convention as we promised when we signed it back in 1951. We hope the new Minister for Immigration can rise above the Opposition's shameless populism.Pamela Curr
Pamela Curr pamela.c@asrc.org.a

Today's SMH has a new, softer Sharman Stone. Apart from the hypocrisy of the accusations of secrecy on the part of the Government, this is a sudden turnaround from Ms Stone who has been running the "boat arrival as threat" line. Today "It's important to be transparent. Australians are very sympathetic and welcoming and I am surprised that Minister Evans is keeping a little veil of secrecy around this," Dr Stone said.

Has Malcolm Turnbull (the new leader of the opposition) pulled her into line?

Have we underestimated 'Mr Populism on Banks'?

If true, this is a real change of policy - and very welcome.

Island wait for boat people

Sydney Morning Herald
Left: Unauthorised arrivals … the boat people are transferred to Christmas Island.
Yuko Narushima and Mark Metherell
3 October 2008

THE first boatload of people to be intercepted off Australia's coast by the Rudd Government arrived at Christmas Island yesterday, but the lack of detail on the detainees has drawn accusations of secrecy from the Opposition.

The navy detected a boat with 11 male passengers, one female passenger and two crewmen off Ashmore Reef on Monday. The group was transferred to Australia's detention facility in the Indian Ocean by Customs.

The Immigration Minister, Chris Evans, used the swift action dealing with the group to demonstrate the Government's strong stance on border protection.

"They are unauthorised arrivals and are subject to mandatory detention," he said yesterday. "The interception of this group of unauthorised arrivals clearly demonstrated the Rudd Government's border security arrangements are working."

The Government has not identified the group's country of origin but confirmed translators had been flown to the island to help with identification.

The Opposition spokeswoman for immigration, Sharman Stone, said the Government was being cagey with information on the arrivals, three of whom claim to be juveniles.

"The Government quite clearly would know from the navy what languages these people were speaking and they would have put appropriate interpreters on their plane," she said.

"It's a case of the minister being coy. It's important to be transparent. Australians are very sympathetic and welcoming and I am surprised that Minister Evans is keeping a little veil of secrecy around this," Dr Stone said.

She said the needs of the people were more important than their country of origin.

Australia has a $396 million detention compound built by the Howard government at Christmas Island, which, since completion, has not been used. The new arrivals were being kept at a smaller complex on the island, at Phosphate Hill, saving on the costs involved with running an 800-person compound unnecessarily.

The Government could not say yesterday what it cost taxpayers to process people offshore. So far these include passage for the unauthorised arrivals to Christmas Island and a plane to transport translators and staff to conduct interviews and testing.

Offshore processing continues policies introduced by the Howard government. Known as the Pacific Solution, the policies were designed to prevent people reaching Australia.

The removal of the boat people to Christmas Island, outside Australian domestic territory, depriving them of recourse to Australian law, has drawn a cool response from the Refugee Council of Australia.

The council's president, John Gibson, said that although the asylum seekers were being kept away from the mainland, the Labor Government had established "a more benign process" giving the boat people access to independent review and welfare support.

"Within the current framework it is the best outcome we have got …We would obviously prefer the excision ended," Mr Gibson said, referring to the previous government's excision of offshore islands for legal purposes.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/island-wait-for-boat-people/2008/10/02/1222651267632.html