Julian Burnside AO QC

Human rights and refugee advocate Julian Burnside addressed around 70 Institute members and friends at Glover Cottages on Monday evening 23 November. He asked why Australians tolerated the Australian government mistreating boat people. It might be due to the fact that seventy percent get their news from the Murdoch media and are repeatedly told that boat people are illegal. But boat people are neither illegal nor criminal, just people trying to escape persecution. Their persecution now occurs in Manus, Nauru and other centres at the hands of Canberra. Howard exploited the Tampa incident and coincidental attacks on the World Trade Centre and Pentagon to create a mental bias against Muslims. Julian described two recent examples of persecution – of an 11-year old girl who hanged herself even though she was too young to tie the knots properly, and a young man tortured at Abu Ghraib and locked without psychiatric help in solitary confinement in Glenside. Both cases were regarded by Immigration officials with indifference and inertia. The government’s stated reason for stopping the boats – drownings at sea – has been constructed to give a moral basis for turning boats around. But it is patently insincere: it showed no concern about drownings or other deaths caused by sending unequipped and under-provisioned boats back to sea, or the suicides of people indefinitely locked up in Australian-funded detention camps.

Julian observed that health workers at detention centres are concerned about the condition of prisoners, but are prosecuted if they express their concerns publicly. Australia joined the International Criminal Court but failed to introduce laws consistent with provisions of the Treaty of Rome about crimes against humanity. Tony Abbott publicly resented being obligated to international laws or the institutions that created them, including the United Nations itself. Malcolm Turnbull seems not to be motivated by such prejudices, but faceless right-wing men in his party continue, apparently, to need placating.

Julian observed that Australia received between 180,000 and 200,000 immigrants a year, divided into three streams – through an entirely admirable off-shore resettlement scheme; by aeroplane; and a few, perhaps a couple of thousand, by boat. Only the latter group are demonised and denied the protection they are entitled to by international law. What can be done? First, abandon the Pacific Solution and assume that boats will continue to arrive (a wise assumption given increasing chaos in Syria). Second, detain arrivals in Australia for a month, then release them into the community. Allow them to work, have access to Medicare, but stipulate that they live and work in specified rural or regional centres. Review their situation after a certain period, and allow those who have respected these conditions to settle in Australia. It would benefit regional centres, and do good for the refugees. It would cost far less than the millions of dollars spent each year on mistreating refugees, and ease the conscience of the majority of Australians who are well-meaning and increasingly appalled at our treatment of refugees.

Report prepared by Richard Broinowski