Bartlett's Blog

The prospect of the refugee detention camps on Nauru being reopened has become very real, with the issue of asylum seekers in boats apparently being of such magnitude to Tony Abbott that he would make it virtually his first priority for action above almost everything else, should he end up being elected on the weekend. Apart from a visit by Philip Ruddock and the then shadow Minister for Labor, ...

Following are links to a couple of recent radio interviews I've done, plus an online one

Yesterday saw both the government and Opposition make policy announcements regarding asylum seekers. Most of the attention has focused on Prime Minster Gillard’s speech on the issue, although (conveniently for the government) there is so much detail yet to be finalised that it is hard to make definitive judgements on how it will all work. By contrast, the Opposition’s policy release got less attention, beyond general comments about how ...

How on earth could anyone possibly believe that public or political debate on asylum seekers is being constrained by political correctness?! For at least the last decade, public commentary in letters to the editor, talkback shows and online forums have contained a vast array of views on this matter, including many that are extremely aggressive, antagonistic, abusive and vilifying - and all of which have clearly not been put ...

This Sunday marks the start of Refugee Week, with plenty of events around the country to acknowledge and celebrate the contribution refugees have made and continue to make to our society, culture and economy. I'm speaking at a rally being held in Brisbane Square this Sunday from 1pm to mark World Refugee Day. I have attended many refugee week events over the years, and they often involve people from ...

One of Afghanistan's most prominent human rights advocates is in Australia this week attending a conference in Canberra. Nader Nadery has been a commissioner on the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission since it was established in 2002 and he was part of the Afghan delegation to the Bonn conference on Afghan reconstruction after the US led invasion. ELEANOR HALL: What's your view of the Australian Government's change of policy on ...

Peter Mares is a long time follower of refugee issues and critic of the problems inherent in the former government’s approach to asylum seekers in boats.  He wrote a piece in The Age which emphasised a point about the Howard’s government asylum policies which does not get highlighted enough. former treasurer Peter Costello wrote in these pages that the only way to prevent asylum seekers coming to Australia by ...

Given all the speculation and commentary about the two boats with Tamil asylum seekers aboard currently in Indonesia, I thought it would be helpful to publish some basic facts about the people.  This information comes from Pamela Curr from the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre in Melbourne, a person I've found to very reliable on these sorts of things - certainly far more so than anonymous, speculative or presumptive ...

I had the following piece published this week at New Matilda and at Online Opinion.  One interesting aspect (at least for me) of publishing a piece on a few different websites is seeing how different the comment threads can be responding to the same piece.

Having explored and debated the issue of asylum seekers arriving in boats for well over a decade, there are really only two solutions which I can see that are likely to work in the longer term - and they will inevitably be only partial solutions. The first is to resolve the issues which cause people to flee in the first place. This is usually hard to do, because (a) ...

Refugees in Rocky In amongst the antagonism and angst that can surround debates about refugees, whether here or overseas, it is good to see a good news story about the positives for a family that has settled here in Queensland, and their keenness to start contributing to the community and economy in their new home. http://www.themorningbulletin.com.au/story/2009/10/06/families-safe-from-congo-war-horror/  This piece from the Rockhampton Morning Bulletin tells the story of 13 refugees originally ...

Wednesday night politics in Brisbane Two forums are being held in Brisbane tomorrow night which may be of interest to some. One is a forum to debate Integrity & Accountability in Queensland. It is being held at the Irish Club, 175 Elizabeth St  from  6pm.  Speakers include former state Attorney-General, Linda Lavarch, journalist Tony Koch, Brian Stewart from the Urban Development Institute. The other forum is examining some of the current issues ...

A couple more pieces about asylum seekers & Malaysia The Taiwan News http://www.etaiwannews.com/etn/news_content.php?id=1009086〈=eng_news reports that “Malaysian authorities have arrested five immigration officers suspected of selling ‘illegal’ immigrants from Myanmar to human traffickers” – reportedly the “first time Malaysia has found evidence that government officials were involved in forced labour exploitation” Meanwhile, http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,,25797512-7583,00.html Mike Steketee from The Australian lays out some basic facts that must be taken into account with the current ...

The political responses to asylum seekers arriving in Australia by boat is starting to focus more and more on other countries in our region.  Until recently this has mostly involved Indonesia, but Malaysia is now being mentioned more frequently.  I recently wrote a piece for Crikey and also had a letter published in The Australian detailing some of the serious human rights abuses inflicted on asylum seekers and ...

I had an article published in the main Crikey e-newsletter today, outlining some of the trends, facts and government responses to the well over 40 million refugees, asylum seekers, internally displaced and stateless people around the world. It seems likely the issue of asylum seeker boat arrivals will once again be moving closer to the political centre stage in Australia, even though these currently number less than 1000 out of ...

The Sydney Leadership Program is a leadership development program run by the Benevolent Society for the last ten years.  A Queensland based version is being run for the first time later this year.  Last week I got the chance to speak for an hour with a group of people undertaking a two day session they were spending in Canberra as part of the program.  You can find out ...

A post by Nayano at a Possie in Aussie drew my attention to a story in The Agedetailing a visit by a Federal Government's security adviser “to Malaysia and Sri Lanka to negotiate ways to stop the flow of asylum seekers to Australia.”  Many asylum seekers go via Malaysia to Indonesia where they try to apply with the UNHCR for recognition as a refugee and/or try to get on a ...

It is disturbing to see that the Liberal Party is giving consideration to supporting the reintroduction of on Temporary Protection Visas (TPVs) for refugees.  The TPV was one of the most punishing, least effective and most counter-productive measures of the former government's aimed at reducing the number of asylum seekers arriving by boat. It had the opposite effect. Bringing them back would not help anybody - here or ...

The tragic explosion on a boatload filled with refugees from Afghanistan has generated another war of words over asylum seeker policies in Australia.  Ive written a piece on this over at Crikey, which you can read by clicking here.  We've had enough debate on this site about asylum seeker issues lately, so I'll leave comments off here. Comments can be made over at that site.

I’m speaking at a workshop being held at the University of Queensland tonight (Wednesday) on the history of Australia’s treatment of refugees and the involvement of the UN in that. Australia has an interesting and very mixed history in the way we have treated refugees and asylum seekers, from the extremely good to the atrociously bad.  It is one of a number of workshops being organised by local members of ...