Australia's asylum seeker obsession puts democracy at risk
Scott
Morrison's creation of a single border force confirms it: asylum seeker
policy is dominating the working agenda of the government and its
departments. An inquiry is inevitable
Morrison's creation of a single border force confirms it: asylum seeker
policy is dominating the working agenda of the government and its
departments. An inquiry is inevitable
will result in a judicial inquiry or royal commission into Australia’s
treatment of asylum seekers. Photograph: LUKAS COCH/AAPIMAGE
Today, in his address at the Lowy Institute, immigration minister Scott Morrison announced the creation of the Australian border force,
a "single integrated border protection agency" of customs and
immigrations assets – including detention centre management. A
commissioner, to lead the agency, will report directly to Morrison and
“pick up where Operation Sovereign Borders leaves off”.
This
latest announcement shows that far from being on the periphery of
Australian politics, asylum seeker policy is now at its centre. It has
taken on a life of its own and now, to varying degrees, dictates the
working agenda of a number of key government departments and agencies.
The overwrought reaction to what in reality is the movement of a small
number of people has in effect created a de-facto "mega department" in
Canberra, informal but central to the government's agenda, and not
overly concerned with the rule of law.
It includes the department
of defence, whose uniformed personnel have become politicised by their
involvement in immigration control. It began when the SAS were deployed
onto the Tampa under John Howard; now the commando who led the attack is
the deputy chief of the army.
The Australian navy has also been compromised, made to breach
Indonesian sovereignty as it tows boats back across the maritime
boundary.
Refugees legitimately seeking asylum, for that is what
they are doing, do not constitute a security threat. Yet Morrison,
acting on the hysteria generated by Tony Abbott, has chosen to couch
asylum seekers' legitimate quest for freedom in terms of an invasion.
Immigration have advised sending Tamils back to Sri Lanka without hearing their claims for asylum
on the basis, untested, that they are economic refugees. They oversee
the hellish holding camps for asylum seekers on Manus and Nauru. They
have primary responsibility for a policy which treats people badly and
illegally, both in terms of Australian domestic law and international
law.
The attorney-general’s department has acquiesced in these illegalities and supports the indefinite detention of over 50 refugees, mostly Tamils, on security grounds. Its decision is based on the flawed assessment of ASIO,
which has received its advice from the Sri Lankan government, the
victors in a civil war which has seen the defeated and persecuted Tamils
seeking to flee the country.
The department of foreign affairs,
apparently acting on domestic political imperatives, has obfuscated the
reality of existence for Tamils in Sri Lanka, which embraces
persecution, in order to back the Australian government’s policy of
denying refugee status to Tamils. Together with the AFP, who has
officers stationed in Colombo, foreign affairs has sought to strengthen
the resolve of the Sri Lankan authorities to stop boats with Tamils on
board sailing for Australia.
Concluding secret deals with
Cambodia, a notoriously corrupt state, for the resettlement of refugees
seeking asylum in Australia does not remove Australia from its
responsibilities and the UNHCR has said as much. Nor can returning Tamil
asylum seekers to Sri Lanka without testing their claims be construed
as anything less than an act of bastardry.
The AFP has also
been involved in working with people smugglers in Indonesia and Malaysia
to disrupt sea borne smuggling operations to Australia. ASIS have been
been involved in these operations and in gathering information on the
likely movement of people from other countries, including Iraq, Iran and
Afghanistan.
Prime minister and cabinet is the co-ordinator and
political driving force of this "mega department", although power shifts
and positions are contested, sometimes hotly, depending on the
ambitions at play. However, a consensus and team mentality has built, a
common language agreed behind officially sanctioned walls of silence,
which has helped unify the bureaucratic players. The consensus on this
key issue between both major parties has helped.
The effect of
asylum seeker policy on the political advisory process has the potential
to substantially undermine established democratic process. The pressure
on core processes and beliefs will result in a judicial inquiry or
royal commission into Australia’s treatment of asylum seekers. And none
of the fictions invented about the responsibilities of the PNG or
Nauruan governments toward deported and incarcerated asylum seekers can
absolve the Australian government from their international legal and
humanitarian responsibilities.
Morrison claims he has stopped the
boats, but he has not. His agents continue to turn them back, at great
cost. He has not developed a sustainable policy. The numbers are
building on Indonesia. An inquiry is inevitable. What will they do?
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