Behrouz Boochani : The many incarnations of Australia’s convict mentality, The Saturday Paper

My life in Manus Camp was a rope that led me into the deepest recesses of the Australian psyche. It led me to Australia not as a country or a nation but as a colonial mindset. I have written quite a bit about Manus, and all those pieces had the same underlying theme: Manus is the collective unconsciousness of Australia. My writing has been an attempt at finding the deep structures that connect Manus to the colonial history of Australia.

Behrouz Boochani : The many incarnations of Australia’s convict mentality, The Saturday Paper

Peter Dutton doubles down on immigration attacks despite Victoria police clearing detainee of assault charges. By Paul Karp & Benita Kolovos, The Guardian

Sanmati Verma, acting legal director of the Human Rights Law Centre, said that “relentless hounding to drum up community fear for political gain … endangers people who have been lawfully released from detention”.

Peter Dutton doubles down on immigration attacks despite Victoria police clearing detainee of assault charges. By Paul Karp & Benita Kolovos, The Guardian

A little support instead of billions on toxic cruelty. By Lucy Hamilton, P&I

Meanwhile Clare O’Neil’s Home Affairs is only beginning to reckon with the harm done to the Australian record and budget by Scott Morrison, Peter Dutton and Michael Pezzullo, their chief public servant, recently removed in disgrace.

Australians ought to be angry, not only about the vast quantity of taxpayer money that should have been much better spent. We ought to be angry that enterprising people who could, with a little support, have achieved great accomplishments enabling a better future for them and the countries that would host them.

A little support instead of billions on toxic cruelty. By Lucy Hamilton, P&I

Australia funding ‘unethical’ advertisements aimed at preventing boat arrivals. By Zach Hope, SMH

“A review of the [advertising] codes suggests these wouldn’t be accepted in Australia,” said Griffith University marketing expert, Dr Gavin Northey, who reviewed two of the commercials for this masthead.

“This raises the question: Why does the Australian government feel they are appropriate in another country?”

He said the ads trivialise mental health, particularly in a highly marginalised group and the campaign overlooks the life experiences and struggles of such people.

Australia funding ‘unethical’ advertisements aimed at preventing boat arrivals. By Zach Hope, SMH

Sky News debate on asylum seeker policy: Indisputable facts. By Abul Rizvi, IA

I (Dr Abul Rizvi) have been asked to participate in a debate on a new Sky News program, The Jury. The debate will be on asylum seeker policy.

Knowing that I will be at a significant disadvantage in such a forum, I proposed two conditions for my participation.

The first was that the debate question be policy-oriented and not politically based. Sky has agreed the debate question will be: Are we right to be panicking about recent boat arrivals?

My second requirement was that there would be an agreed set of facts that the moderator – who will be a Sky journalist – would read out.

The facts I have proposed the moderator read out are listed below……………… (click on link below to read these nine indisputable facts about asylum seeker policy)

* EDITOR'S NOTE
Sky News cancelled the debate with the reason given that the issue had "lost its topicality"!

Sky News debate on asylum seeker policy: Indisputable facts. By Abul Rizvi, IA

Backstory of a boat arrival and the bizarre day when 39 foreigners landed in a bush community. 7.30 / By Erin Parke, ABC News

“We had to laugh, but it’s also kind of serious,” one Aboriginal community resident told 7.30.

“I mean, what would have happened if all us families weren’t here? Those men would have died.

“And we still don’t know if there’s more of them out there.”

Details of the backstory of the boat arrival are only now emerging, with locals calling for more involvement in efforts to patrol and intercept foreign arrivals.

Backstory of a boat arrival and the bizarre day when 39 foreigners landed in a bush community. 7.30 / By Erin Parke, ABC News

No, Peter, there is not a flotilla of boats coming. By Mike Seccombe, The Saturday Paper

“It remains impossible to reach Australia by boat and then seek asylum here,” says Daniel Ghezelbash, deputy director of UNSW Sydney’s Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law. “Anyone attempting to do so is turned back to their country of departure or sent to Nauru. That policy is entirely unchanged.”

The visa change, he says, allowed a limited cohort of people who had arrived in Australia more than 10 years ago, who had been found to be genuine refugees but were “stuck on a cycle of short-term protection visas, year after year”, to apply for a permanent protection visa.

“Those people had been living in Australia since before Operation Sovereign Borders went into effect. For anyone who arrived after January 1, 2014 – or who arrives now – the TPV policy change is entirely irrelevant,” says Ghezelbash. “It does not apply.”

No, Peter, there is not a flotilla of boats coming. By Mike Seccombe, The Saturday Paper.

Usual cruelties: Imbeciles who fear the borders By Binoy Kampmark, P&I

The imaginative faculties of standard Australian politicians retreat to some strange, deathly place on certain issues. In that wasteland, they are often unrecoverable. Like juveniles demanding instant reward, they find complexity hideous. Focus on the now, the punch, the bruising, the hurt. That, in sum, is Canberra’s policy towards refugees.

Usual cruelties:imbeciles who fear the borders. By Binoy Kampmark, P & I

Unshackle immigration from Home Affairs and give it its own department. The Conversation / By Michelle Grattan, ABC

A freestanding immigraation department would allow "a clear-eyed, high-priority concentration on immigration policy and service delivery free of the distractions and distortions to which it is vulnerable in Home Affairs", Gourley wrote on Inside Story in November.

Unshackle immigration from Home Affairs and give it its own department. The Conversation / By Michelle Grattan, ABC

Opinion: People seeking asylum in Australia shouldn’t have to trade danger for degradation. By Frances Rush (CEO Asylum Seeker Centre, Newtown), The Guardian

It is a human right to seek asylum, regardless of how people arrive in Australia. People seeking asylum risk their lives to enter a system which is purposely designed to isolate and neglect them. By leaving their homes, families and communities to make a treacherous and often fatal journey, these people demonstrate untold resilience and strength.

No one chooses this course of action. It is forced upon them.

Our country is honouring the letter of this right, but not the spirit.

Opinion: People seeking asylum in Australia shouldn’t have to trade danger for degradation. By Frances Rush (CEO Asylum Seeker Centre, Newtown), The Guardian

Dutton oversaw largest rise in asylum applications in history. They came by air. By Abul Rizvi, P&I

The Albanese Government has undoubtedly taken far too long to address the issue of unmeritorious asylum seekers arriving by plane that it inherited from the Coalition. Its $160 million package to address that is inadequate but it is far more than Dutton ever did on the issue.
However, for Dutton to now carry on about 40 odd boat arrivals is an extraordinary deflection from his own numerous failures.

Dutton oversaw largest rise in asylum applications in history. They came by air. By Abdul Rizvi, P & I

‘New MO?’ Indonesians want Australia to share information on people smugglers. By Zach Hope, Amilia Rosa and Karuni Rompies, SMH

Jakarta: Indonesian police are calling on Australian authorities to share information about how recently arrived asylum seekers managed to avoid detection, so they can step up prevention efforts.

The call came as a local fishers’ association warned people smugglers may be using risky monsoon conditions off West Java to sneak past the watch of patrols.

'New MO?' Indonesians want Australia to share information on people smugglers. By Zac By Zach Hope, Amilia Rosa and Karuni Rompies, SMH

What is Operation Sovereign Borders, and why are Australia's politicians fighting about it? By Gavin Butler,SBS

Crock has seen firsthand how this knock-on effect plays out on the ground.
I've been in Indonesia, I've been in the homes of people smugglers there, I've been taken around and I know how they operate," she said.

"Everybody's on a mobile phone, everyone's got immediate communications, and the smugglers use the language that is coming out of the [Australian] politicians 100 per cent to sell their dangerous voyages."
Crock said she’s also spoken to asylum seekers who were issued with tickets that made it look as though they were boarding a proper ocean liner, only to be forced onto dinghies by the people smugglers and taken out to sea.
"[People smugglers] are not nice people," she said. "They're murderous, evil, horrible people, and they're absolutely using the politics. [Dutton] knows it so well and doesn't care."

………..This latest incident happened to coincide with a major event in Indonesia: namely, the world’s biggest one-day election.

"At a particular time when John Howard had his massive surge in boats, in 1999 through 2001, it coincided with East Timorese independence and relationships with Indonesia were never poorer," Crock said.

"I think this event probably relates to the disruption of the election in Indonesia."

What is Operation Sovereign Borders, and why are Australian politicians fighting about it? By Gavin Butler, SBS

Will Albanese follow the Coalition handbook of staying schtum over on-water matters? By Daanyl Saeed, Crikey

…But while the Labor Party came to power in 2022 promising greater transparency and accountability, not much has changed in terms of disclosures around maritime arrivals. 

“The policy settings have not changed,” said Madeline Gleeson, senior research fellow at the Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law. 

“It remains impossible to reach Australia by boat and then seek asylum here. That has not changed, nor has the lack of transparency on boat arrivals.

“In terms of on-water matters, and Operation Sovereign Borders, there has been no substantive change in policy or transparency. Those matters are still outside the public domain. It is difficult to scrutinise them even through parliamentary proceedings.” 

Will Albanese follow the Coalition handbook of staying schtum over on-water matters? By Daanyl Saeed, Crikey

Albanese slaps back criticism, defends Operation Sovereign Borders. By James Massola and Angus Thompson, SMH

The initial group of about 30 asylum seekers, believed to be Pakistani nationals, was discovered by locals around Beagle Bay on Friday, and the second group, found about an hour later, was Bangladeshi and Indian.

Albanese pushed back against the opposition’s strident criticism of the men’s arrival on Australian shores, and criticised Dutton for politicising it.

Albanese slaps back criticism, defends Operation Sovereign Borders. By James Massola and Angus Thompson, SMH

Suspected asylum seekers taken to Nauru as political storm over boat arrivals intensifies. By Andrea Mayes, Cason Ho & Rosanne Maloney, ABC News

The arrival of 39 foreign nationals by boat in remote northern WA on Friday is continuing to cause a political storm.

The opposition says its shows the government is weak on border protection, but the prime minister has accused Peter Dutton of "talking Australia down".

The men have been taken to an offshore detention centre at Nauru.

Suspected asylum seekers taken to Nauru as political storm over boat arrivals intensifies. By Andrea Mayes, Cason Ho & Rosanne Maloney, ABC News

Dutton likely unscathed by damning Home Affairs revelations, thanks to the media. By Nick Feik, Crikey

This week revealed new details about how Home Affairs under Dutton entered into contracts with multiple companies that were under investigation by the Australian Federal Police. His department contracted a company whose CEO was being investigated for possible drugs and arms smuggling.

Dutton likely unscathed by damning Home Affairs revelations, thanks to media. Crikey