Robert Manne writes in The Conversation (26.10.16) about the absolutism embedded in an Australian immigration culture of control, in an edited extract of a talk he delivered to the Integrity 20 Conference at Griffith University on October 25, 2016.’If you had been told 30 years ago that Australia would create the least asylum seeker friendly institutional arrangements in the world, you would not have been believed.’In 1992 we introduced a system of indefinite mandatory detention for asylum seekers who arrive by boat. Since that time, we have accepted the idea that certain categories of refugees and asylum seekers can be imprisoned indefinitely; that those who are intercepted by our navy should be forcibly returned to the point of departure; that those who haven’t been able to be forcibly returned should be imprisoned indefinitely on remote Pacific Islands; and that those marooned on these island camps should never be allowed to settle in Australia even after several years.
‘How then has this come to pass? There are two main ways of explaining this.
‘The first is what can be called analytical narrative: the creation of an historical account that shows the circumstances in which the decisions were made and how one thing led to another. I have tried my hand at several of these.
‘The second way is to look at more general lines of explanation. I want to suggest five possibilities. These general lines of explanation are not alternatives to each other but complementary. Nor do they constitute an alternative to explanation by way of analytical narrative. Rather, they attempt to illuminate some of the general reasons the story took the shape it did.’
- Robert Manne: How we came to be so cruel to asylum seekers »
- Same old rhetoric cannot justify banning refugees from Australia »
- Asylum seekers who come by boat banned for life under new laws »
- European leaders taking cues from Australia on asylum seeker policies »
- Punishment not protection: Australia’s treatment of refugees and asylum seekers in Papua New Guinea »
- We cannot rely morally on ‘deterrence’ to justify our harsh refugee policies »
- Australia’s asylum seeker policy history: a story of blunders and shame »
- The harsh reality of onshore immigration detention in Australia »
- Australia’s immigration detention system is cruel and damaging by its very nature »
- It’s time to give visas to the Biloela Tamil family and other asylum seekers stuck in the system »
- Until we face up to the lie that underpins our treatment of refugees, Tharnicaa and children like her will suffer »
- If you think Australia making an example of a sick three-year-old is an exception, think again. This is what we do »
- Cruel, costly and ineffective: Australia’s offshore processing asylum seeker policy turns 9 »
- Cost of Australia holding each refugee on Nauru balloons to $4.3m a year »
- Australia’s asylum policy has been a disaster. It’s deeply disturbing the UK wants to adopt it »
- The torture of asylum seekers has twisted our perceptions of right and wrong »
- I have experienced Australia’s detention policy first-hand – it’s time to end it »
- ‘A form of cruelty’: 51 asylum seekers brought to Australia under medevac laws still languish in detention »
- ‘Futile and cruel’: plan to charge fees for immigration detention has no redeeming features »
- 3 types of denial that allow Australians to feel OK about how we treat refugees »
- New immigration detention bill could give Australia a fresh chance to comply with international law »
- Our cruel and costly offshore processing system was a failure. We have a better solution on asylum policy
- Finish this crisis: stories exposing the horrors of offshore detention
- Indefinite immigration detention ruled unlawful in landmark Australian high court decision
- Labor veteran joins criticism over proposed mandatory sentencing changes after high court decision
- Strict conditions set down for detainees released by High Court order, as government strikes quick deal with Coalition
- Australia’s political opportunists have stoked hysteria and robbed refugees of their humanity