May 2008 - End of TPVs

Dear Supporters of A Just Australia,

There have been some very positive changes to refugee issues in recent weeks. Last night the Minister announced an end to Temporary Protection Visas and the continuing funding of the Community Care Pilot. (see latest issues below.)

AJA, alongside many other advocates and organisations, has been working hard to achieve changes like these. In December the sector agreed on the High priority issues for the first 6 months of the new government and we have had some great success by focusing on these ?triage? issues:

High Priority Issues Update:?

1.?????? Ending the Temporary Protection Visas and Temporary Humanitarian Visas system ? Achieved! Yet to be implemented but see below for the details of the proposal?

2.?????? Ending the Pacific Solution. Achieved! But the Government remains committed to Christmas Island detention centre and excision which AJA will continue to oppose.?

3.?????? Release of long-term detained asylum seekers ? needs reform. There are still people held in long term (+2 years) detention. Detention conditions and duration need urgent reform.?

4.?????? Ministerial Intervention guidelines reviewed ? Some changes. The reform process has started, but in the meantime many people are being rejected by the system.??

5.?????? Family Reunion for TPV and THV holders ? Some changes TPVs + THVs scrapped, but no undertaking as yet to give priority to these family reunion cases. Needs further work.?

6.?????? Language - halt of negative language and cultural stereotyping, replaced with language which is grounded in human rights principles.?Achieved! Although this does require a watching brief to ensure that negative or stereotyping never occurs again, particularly in politically fraught situations like a boat arrival.?

7.?????? Work rights for Bridging Visas - abolishing the 45 day rule needs reform. No changes yet, but there has been a lot of discussion. We hope to see movement on this issue in the coming months.

But there is still more to do! We have not achieved all those goals, and there are many other important issues. As well as the high priority issues, we will continue to work toward:?

??????????? Detention: reform of the detention regime to meet ALP promises that detention for asylum seekers should be only for health, character and security checks, should be humane and should never be indefinite

??????????? Legal System: Reform to the processing of protection claims, including legal advice, reviews, Ministerial Intervention etc.

??????????? Excision: ending excision and the use of remote detention centres such as on Christmas Island

??????????? Consultation: reform of the policy development process to include welfare, legal and health experts in the policy development process ? not just in policy implementation.

We need your help. If you have not yet paid your membership fees, or would like to become a new member or donor, please click here??to see how you can help this work to continue.

?

Latest Issues

End of TPVs

Last night it was announced that the Temporary Protection Visa regime will end. See this media release from the Minister http://www.minister.immi.gov.au/media/media-releases/2008/ce05-buget-08.htm

The regulations have not yet been lodged, but it is expected this will happen by June/July.This change applies to TPVs and THVs (the visas granted under the Pacific Solution) People will essentially be automatically converted over ? they will have to go through the usual health, character and security checks but will not have to have their claims reassessed as they currently do when applying for a further protection visa (FPV) once their first TPV expires.?

You can get more details on the changes on the Immigration website here??

A Just Australia applauds the Minister for making this step, which will have a profound positive effect on many traumatised refugees living in our community.?

There is an area that still needs to be resolved for TPV holders ? family reunion. People on TPVs have been barred from family reunion programs, so we hope that the Minister will instruct the Department to give priority to applications from former TPV holders who have already been waiting for many years to be reunited with family members, many of whom are still in danger.?

Please send letters of thanks to let the Government know how many people support these positive changes:?

Senator Chris Evans, Minister for Immigration and Citizenship

Email: via this online contact form??

The Hon. Kevin Rudd, MP, Prime Minister

Email: via this online contact form??

Or post letters to both at

Parliament House, Canberra ACT? 2600?

Just a short reminder of the history of TPVs: The idea of temporary protection for some refugees was most notably proposed by Pauline Hanson of the One Nation party in 1998. In response, the then Minister for Immigration Phillip Ruddock stated ?Can you imagine what temporary entry would mean for them? ?. So I regard the One Nation?s approach being highly unconscionable in a way that most thinking people would clearly reject?. Yet one year later in 1999 Phillip Ruddock introduced the TPV.??

Increased intake

The offshore intake is going to increase. In 2008-09 only there will be an extra 500 places for Iraqi refugees. Then in 2009-10 and ongoing years there will be an extra 750 places for SHP visas.??

This is a step in the right direction, but there?s a long way to go before Australia?s humanitarian program reaches the same proportion of the general migration intake that it was 12 years ago.??

Detention centre upgrade

The Minister has announced that Villawood detention center will be upgraded. See his media release.??

AJA believes that while those improvements are much-needed - conditions at Villawood detention centre are deplorable - it doesn't tackle the real spending issue which is the current rate of the use of detention.?

Improving detention conditions without assessing who needs to be in detention in the first place is just about appearances and doesn't provide long term solutions or protection. Detention is incredibly costly, particularly when so many people shouldn't be detained at all.?

Prior to the 2007 election, the ALP promised that detention would only be for necessary health and security checks and would never be indefinite. It is time they lived up to those promises by putting time limits on detention and investing money from the Budget in the cheaper alternatives to prolonged detention instead of throwing good money after bad by upgrading detention centres.?

It is ironic that for so many years advocates have not been asking government to spend more money on asylum seekers. Overall our policy suggestions would significantly reduce overall departmental spending.

?

Ministerial Intervention

You may have been reading the news articles on the numbers of people being rejected for Ministerial Intervention visas (the last stop in the process for rejected asylum seekers.)

The Age reported: ?Rejected asylum seekers are being deported in increasing numbers as the new Immigration Minister refuses last-ditch appeals at an unprecedented rate, refugee support groups claim. ? Read the article. See also this ASRC report on cases which have been rejected. (Although it must be noted that there is some question as the accuracy of the statistics of Ministerial Intervention that have been thrown about by all sides of the debate.)?

Read the Ministers response here And you can see AJAs media release here?As well as the Refugee Councils position on this issue:

?

The Minister has previously stated that he is uncomfortable with the ?godlike? powers of Ministerial intervention, and commissioned Elizabeth Proust to prepare some initial advice on those powers. See this SMH story http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/i-should-not-play-god-evans/2008/02/19/1203190824140.html?

AJA remains concerned with the lack of transparency involved in Ministerial Intervention and will continue to advocate both for individuals we believe have been wrongly rejected by this process, as well as advocate for reform of this system achieved by open and constructive dialogue with the advocacy and legal sector. Our understanding is that reforms to this system will involve this consultation and we will keep you posted on this issue.?

2020 report

AJA?s National Coordinator, Kate Gauthier, was invited to the 2020 summit as a participant in the Governance stream rather than the social inclusion stream. The Governance stream discussed issues such as the republic, indigenous representation in parliament, indigenous recognition in the constitution and electoral reform. Issues that were relevant to AJA?s work included a bill or charter of rights, and increased community participation in government decision-making.??

There was a lot of heated debate around the method of enshrining rights in Australia ? a non-binding charter or a legislative bill or a constitutional change. Whatever the method chosen by the Australian people, A Just Australia?s position is that it must protect the rights of everybody, not just Australian citizens.??

The purpose of a Charter/Bill of Rights is to document what are inherent human rights and limit the ways in which a government can infringe on those rights. If we limit this to citizens, we are essentially saying that Australia reserves the right to abuse the human rights of segments of our population. This is much the same arguments used by the Howard government to justify their harsh treatment of asylum seekers ? they are ?different? to us, they throw their children overboard, they jump the queue and therefore it is ok to treat them more harshly than we would treat Australians. This is a very dangerous approach to take to human rights, as it is based on the view that there is a tiered system of humanity, with some humans having more rights to legal protection than others. And at the end of the day, it is never acceptable to abuse human rights in order to seek a policy outcome.?

Although there was no discussion of refugees and asylum seekers in this stream, AJA did manage to put the issue forward by suggesting that some of the ideas could be cost-neutral by diverting funds after closing the detention center on Christmas Island. This did get a big cheer from the room.??

You can read the preliminary Summit report to the Prime Minister here??

House committee on petitions

The Government has introduced a new committee ? the House Committee on Petitions.??

Their role is to receive and process petitions and report on them to the House. The Committee will also recommend action to be taken on the petition. They can forward the petition to the relevant Minister, who should respond to a petition within 90 days. Details of ministerial responses will be tabled in Hansard and will be available on the Petition Committee's web site.?

In some cases the Committee may choose to seek further information on the subject of a petition, through meetings with the principal petitioner and other relevant individuals and groups.?

This is a great step forward for public input into policy ? there have been many petitions done on refugee and asylum seeker issues that have been handed to sympathetic politicians, get tabled in parliament and then sink without a trace. Hopefully this new committee will mean that people who choose to make their voice heard through petitions, will not be silenced by parliamentary processes.?

You can find out more details on their webpage.

?

Articles + Speeches

A Human Rights Approach to Immigration Law By David Mann?

In recent times, Australia has suffered a crisis of credibility when it comes to human rights compliance.? This is most evident in the area of immigration.? Protection of borders has regularly predominated over the protection of fundamental rights of those within them.? So too, has political expediency.?

Australia?s recent approach to asylum seekers and refugees has been radical and degenerative in nature.? The approach has created one of the toughest and most extensive anti-asylum seeker systems in the Western world.? From a human rights perspective Australia?s approach represents, in many respects, the Western world?s worst practices and a potentially problematic precedent.? Key features have included: mandatory, indefinite, non-reviewable detention; Temporary Protection Visas; the Pacific/Indian Ocean Solutions; naval repulsion of asylum seekers arriving by boat; and ?excision? of Australian territory to preclude people seeking asylum in Australia at all.?

With recent political regime change in Australia, the question of immigration reform now invites a quite different inquiry; here is a snapshot?of some key priority themes and signposts for reform in the context of Immigration policies and laws.??

Read the full text here:

?

Australian Citizenship test ?The new Australian citizenship test ? a template for national identity?

Speech by Petro Georgiou, Liberal MP for Kooyong and long-time advocate for just and fair asylum seeker and immigration policies.?

On 1 October 2007 a new citizenship test was instituted, with the legislation being supported by both the Coalition Government and the then Labor Opposition?.My position is that the arguments advanced for the test were and are profoundly flawed. The new test is punitive; it turns its back on our tradition of inclusive citizenship; and will prevent many meritorious aspiring citizens from full membership of the Australian community?.?

The fact is that the aim of the new test is not simply to better assess whether newcomers are fit to become Australian citizens. What the new test seeks to achieve is to set out a template for Australianness which impacts on all Australians."?

Read the full speech online

?

Notices?

Film Launch ? ?A Well Founded Fear?

The film version of Deported to Danger - part of the Sydney Film Festival

Friday 20^th June (World Refugee Day) 5.30pm George Street?

Please come to the launch of this important film. You can buy tickets here:??

'We will decide who comes to this country and the circumstances under which they come,' John Howard's notorious 2001 election speech summarised his government's policy on asylum-seekers. Asylum seekers were held in detention and if their refugee status was declined, they were often deported. A Well-Founded Fear follows Phil Glendenning from Sydney's Edmund Rice Centre for Social Justice as he tracks down several deportees to find out how they are faring. He talks to an elderly Afghani woman whose son was detained on Nauru for 18 months before being sent back; he went missing shortly after his return. Detainees returned to Damascus were arrested and taken to a secret police facility. There are many such stories in Anne Delaney and Bentley Dean's hard-hitting, yet intensely moving production.

?

Asylum Seeker Centre Quiz Night Fundraiser?Friday 16^th May 2008, 7pm for 7.30pm start

North Sydney Leagues Club,

12 Abbott St, Cammeray.

Join us and our wonderful MCs HG Nelson and Tony Squires and help raise funds for the Asylum Seekers Centre?s humanitarian work. Click here for more details http://asylumseekerscentre.org.au/get-involved-donate-come-to-quiz-night.html

?ecently published Boat People: A novel by Maurice Whelan?

They are the Boat People, the eternally homeless, forever fleeing persecution and pain.?

Like tales of betrayal, grief, love and death, the story of innocence swept helplessly along by circumstances it cannot understand or control is an eternal one. Hundreds of years apart, two children are torn from their homelands by war and famine. Overwhelmed by forces both outside and in, they are forced to seek refuge in the strange land of Australia. Will they find a welcome and be granted asylum, or will they remain Boat People, forever wandering, forever broken??

When such issues are blinded and warped by politicians and propaganda, in this compelling work of fiction Maurice Whelan brings to life the real, human story of the plight of child refugees, and the mark their experience leaves on them and the world.??

Maurice will be presenting an Author Talk at:

Auburn Library

1 Susan Street, Auburn

Wednesday 21 May, 3:30 - 4:30pm

Maurice will also be selling his book at the library from 5.00 to 7.00

?

Book details:??? Boat People by Maurice Whelan

???????????????????? Publisher: Ginninderra Press, Canberra?

ISBN 978 1 74027 474 6?

???????????????????????? $22.50

?To buy on the internet visit publisher?s website: http://www.ginninderrapress.com.au/gplist%20fiction.htm Then scroll down through the alphabetical listing to ?Whelan?

?Some bookshops have already stocked the book. Andrew?s and Collected Works in Melbourne; Coaldrakes in Brisbane; Gleebooks and Moirs in Sydney.?

Photo Exhibition

?THE UNITED COLOURS OF AUSTRALIA? SCHOOLS PHOTOGRAPHIC EXHIBITION REVS UP
ENTRIES: APRIL 15 ? FRIDAY JULY 4th, 2008 @ 5 p.m.

A photographic exhibition depicting Australia?s cultural colours and shades has been touring Victoria for the past 12 months. The Diversity in Action committee is keen to encourage more students from country areas participate this year in this touring exhibition.

The exhibition specifically aims to:
? encourage Victorian secondary school students to depict and celebrate the rich diversity of our communities;
? participate and empower Australian youth at this time where refugees and asylum seekers are major issues in the media;
? familiarize the wider Australian community with these trends in modern Australian society and indeed, the world.
Creative Arts Centre (CCAC)

CONTACT: MAGGIE MORGAN, Project Co-ordinator
Contact -9443 8015 A.H. and 0412 572 222 sms
c/o UfP ? Diversity in Action, PO Box 2023, Lygon Street North, East Brunswick 3057

Public Forum ? Melbourne

"Are we there yet?" Where we are up to in the struggle for refugee rights.
A Refugee Week Public Forum
June 17, 6 ? 8 pm
BMW Edge, Federation Square

Host:
Tracee Hutchison, broadcast journalist

Speakers:
Michelle Foster, Director of the International Refugee Law Research Programme, University of Melbourne
Julian Burnside, QC
Paris Aristotle, Director of The Victorian Foundation for Survivors of Torture

Find out what has changed under the Rudd Government and what still needs to be changed to achieve full rights for refugees.

This event is generously supported by the Reichstein Foundation.