Australia, Asylum Seekers, and Offshore Processing...

Madam Prime Minister what is the time frame for this grand plan to develop and build an offshore processing center that is going to handle all these boat people flooding Australian shores? One would imagine considering the urgency with which the policy was announced that these facilities will be in place in the quickest possible time, yes?

Excuse the cynicism. But, for all the fanfare of the announcement of the regional processing center supposedly destined for Timor Leste, and then Papua New Guinea, and then Timor Leste again, and perhaps for any regional nation willing to take it on, this policy, if it is such a thing, is half-baked and destined to disappear into the great depths like many suspect that the leaky boats bringing asylum seekers to these shores do.

The Timor and Papuan solutions have both been rejected by the powers that be in both of those sovereign nations. Yet, despite these rejections the PM is still pushing the policy and hoping that courtesy meetings with the Timor Leste government will bear some fruit and perhaps a processing center. Maybe it will, but it will be on the terms of the East Timorese and not the Australian government who seemingly seriously miscalculated the good will that the East Timorese were going to show on this one.

The government is not setting a very explicit timetable for completion on this one. It is being described as important and ongoing. It is also being described as a problem without a "quick fix". This must surely be read as meaning that the timetable for a processing center is dependent more on our regional neighbours than it is on the ability of Ms. Gillard and her cabinet to foist this onto them no matter what.

This all brings the obvious comparisons to the fore. Of particular note is the speed with which John Howard and his band of merry asylum seeker movers were able to negotiate a "compromise" with Nauru and then get a processing center up and running there. The comparison does no favours to the current PM and her band of merry followers when the numbers are put forward. The current number seems to be 2013. In contrast, the Liberal government got their center in just on a month.

The ABC are reporting that the FM, Stephen Smith, is off to Jakarta this week for a meeting or two. It is also suggested that the regional processing facility is going to be on the agenda. Smith, himself, has stated that the Indonesians were informed of the PM's intention to make the big offshore processing center announcement before it was actually made. Now, if this is true, then it beggars belief that all the press to date suggests that the Australian government did not get around to telling Xanana Gusmao, the Timor Leste Prime Minister, that the big announcement was imminent. Further, judging by the reaction of a good number of Timor Leste politicians it would seem equally evident that the Australian government did not think them worthy of a heads up either.

It appears that the number crunchers at Labor party headquarters have determined that Australians want a hard-nosed approach to asylum seekers that includes making sure that they stay offshore and are processed offshore. Ostensibly this is supposed to be a deterrent to people smugglers. However, it is not the people smugglers that need deterring, it is the people seeking asylum and refugee status that need deterring. If you are fleeing violence and persecution or possible death, then an offshore processing facility is hardly a deterrent. At best it is an additional step to a better life, and at worst it is a temporary reprieve before being sent back to wherever it is that person came from.

Personally, I think the number crunchers are over-estimating the emotions of the broader community on this one. Australians are about fairness and doing what is right. Ask them and they will tell you that they have serious reservations about putting children and women behind bars and razor wire while they are in detention, often for months and years.

Maybe it is time Labor took the high moral ground on this issue and stumped up a policy that is significantly different from that of the opposition. Come to think of it, anything that was even slightly humanitarian in nature would be a vast improvement over what is on offer from the opposition.

Asylum seekers are not our problem, politicians are.

Australia, Timor Leste, and Asylum Seekers...

There is probably much to write and much more to be written on this. However, there needs to be a start and it needs to be somewhere, so why not here?

This is policy making on the run and is sure to get the criticism it deserves and then some. Australia has obligations having signed on the dotted line to all of the relevant treaties and conventions relating to asylum seekers and refugees. This is not a political issue, it is a humanitarian one. It is time that politicians started to remember those basic human decencies under which we all strive to operate under and be respected for.

Now that that is out of the way it is time to get down to some cold hard realities. This is a political issue. It is so because politicians go out of their way to make it so. And, by doing so, they serve only to unravel the web that surrounds them to show themselves as hypocritical number crunchers concerned only with personal electoral survival.

The "Timor Solution" is the "Pacific Solution" by another name. Some of the details might be a little different, but in essence the Labor policy on this is to process asylum seekers offshore and presumably in Timor Leste. The only problem with this is that Labor has forgotten to consult with their Timor Leste counterparts on the policy prior to its announcement. Or, failing that, the Labor people responsible for this move were very poorly advised (preferable bailout position) or just too arrogant to even consider that Timor Leste might say, "bugger that for a joke, we have plenty of problems of our own without taking on your 'problems' as well!"

The government, assuming the government was consulted on this, has been poorly advised. Poorly advised in the sense of Jose Ramos Horta is not the man on this one. He is not Timor Leste. It is time that the Australian government showed a little more respect to a sovereign neighbour. It is worth remembering that Timor Leste is an independent nation with considerable resources and considerable income streams that will come on line over the coming years and decades with the exploitation of oil and gas resources in particular.

That is not to say that the new independent nation that is Timor Leste is thriving and economically stable or aid free. However, the people of Timor Leste have done more than enough to earn a little respect in terms of being consulted on the establishment of an asylum seeker processing / detention facility on their sovereign territory.

The proof of the pudding with respect to the poor advice and the poor consultation mechanisms is that Julia Gillard PM, has come out and said to the effect, 'if Timor does not agree then we will find somewhere else!' Perhaps, Nauru, Ms. PM?

I am still waiting for a talking political head to make a valid case on how this is different to the Pacific Solution that John Howard came up with and that Labor so consistently slammed as being in breach of our international obligations and an affront to our collective humanitarianism. So, much so when I watched Alexander Downer articulating on national television pretty much the same things as I was thinking. And, I am sure many millions of other Australians were thinking too!

Therefore, the arguments have to be that the Liberal policy was fundamentally the right one and the adoption of the Timor Solution is Labor's way of saying so or alternatively the policy is seriously flawed and no matter which way you wrap it it still stinks. My humanitarianism tells me that the latter is the correct assumption. No matter how you package it, it still stinks.

This is not about queue jumpers or terrorists sneaking into Australia. The system will 99 times out of 100 pick up on those individuals and exclude them. This is about doing what is right. Right for Australia and right for those fleeing persecution and other dangers that allow them to claim refugee and asylum status legitimately.

A final point. It is about time someone published the numbers. You know, did the number crunching and some projections and gave it to us, the Australian people, how it really is. I heard earlier today on the idiot box (aka TV) that the numbers were something along the lines of a MCG (Melbourne Cricket Ground) every 10 years or so as the total number of refugees and asylum seekers Australia would receive and process. Apparently, our legitimate migration numbers far-exceed this. So, it is not like refugees and asylum seekers are going to do us in economically, socially, legally or any other -ly.

It is time that we as constituents said to our politicians, "this is not a political issue, it is a humanitarian one." And we should add that, "if you want my vote you will act on your humanitarian conscience and not your political one".

Thus endeth the sermon on asylum seekers and the Timor Solution (for today at least!).

Megawati & Australia

Keeping to the Megawati theme.